Mariano Rivera Highlights

10th inning v Phillies, 5/24/09, getty

• On what made the Yankees so tough in the championship years:

Newsday, Wallace Matthews: "That would be Mariano Rivera, whose very

• presence in the bullpen began applying pressure

• to the opposing team midway through a game, and whose appearance on the mound shortened

• the game by precisely the number of outs that were left.

You didn't get to see much of Mariano this weekend, just one scoreless inning yesterday, but watching Lidge struggle reminded you of how vital Rivera was, and still is, to the Yankees' success.

• If he came in to pitch the ninth, your game ended in the eighth.

• If he came in for the eighth, it ended in the seventh.

His cutter moved like the lid of a coffin on a team's chances to get back into a game....

• Watching Lidge struggle this weekend, you remembered that

• the most important Yankee of all isn't the biggest or the newest or the richest.

It's the one who can get the other guys out when it counts the most.

• If the Yankees are to go anywhere this year,

• Mariano has to slam the door shut

• one more time."

From Newsday column by Wallace Matthews, "Watching Lidge Struggle Makes One Appreciate Mo," 5/24/09

• (This is Rivera's 14th consecutive year as a late inning reliever. During that time he also pitched in 13 consecutive post seasons, 117.1 innings. The equivalent of one and a half more regular seasons).

Labels: Mariano Rivera changed the game, Without throwing one pitch