Maybe Mariano Rivera isn't a robot after all. Maybe when you remove his outer casing, there's a bunch of organs and goop inside instead of plutonium cores and advanced circuitry.
Mariano Rivera And The Curse Of The Left-Handed Home Run
Last Sunday night, Rivera gave up a long double to Marco Scutaro that turned into a run and a Yankees loss. Tuesday, he gave up a two-run home run to Bobby Abreu, which proved to be the game-winning hit. Now on Thursday, Rivera got the save, but not until after allowing a home run to Russell Branyan, who also struck out while rounding the bases.
So is there a problem with Rivera, especially against left-handed hitters? There is some evidence that there might be. From Baseball Analytics:
The difference isn’t vastly significant, but enough so that you can see why lefties are having more success this season. The pitches that Mariano used to throw on the outside are now being thrown more frequently inside and high.Rivera throws a cutter. You might have heard about this. It is a magic pitch taught to him by the disembodied ghost head of Urban Shocker. If this pitch fails Rivera, there really is no fallback plan. He’s 41 and he’s been great for 16 seasons. It’s been one of the most impressive careers in major-league history, especially when you consider he didn’t even become a regular until he was 26. Could be time to accept that he’s getting old -- too old even by Mariano Rivera standards.
Or maybe when you look at the big picture, Rivera allowed his third home run of the year on Thursday, and he’s still walked just five hitters and struck out 39 hitters in 45 innings. And maybe the science about the cutter is valid, but when you look at his splits before he allowed the home run to Branyan ...
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | SB | CS | BB | SO | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB | ROE | tOPS+ | sOPS+ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs RHB as RHP | 43 | 93 | 87 | 11 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 | 6.00 | .218 | .247 | .299 | .546 | 26 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .281 | 90 | 59 |
| vs LHB as RHP | 40 | 77 | 75 | 4 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 15.00 | .267 | .276 | .333 | .610 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .322 | 112 | 64 |
... it’s probably more likely that he’s just a reliever who has the occasional bad game. Yes, even Mariano can have a bad game. He probably schedules them on purpose to throw us off track. I’m guessing this is just a minor bug in the operating system, and he’ll be good for another 23 or 24 years.
Worrying about Mariano Rivera is like worrying that the sun will never rise again. Sure, a supervolcano will eventually snuff out the sun and kill us all, but don’t waste your time worrying about it just yet.
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