Sunday Was About A Lot More Than Celebrating Mariano Rivera

Sunday in the Bronx, the Yankees celebrated the past, struggled in the present, and are dreading the future.

On an afternoon that was proclaimed to be “Mariano Rivera Day” in New York City by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Yankees honored Mariano Rivera by holding a 50-minute pregame ceremony that celebrated the career of baseball’s all-time greatest closer.

Many of Mariano’s past teammates, and players critical to the Yankees’ past gathered on the field for an emotional and memorable ceremony.

The players and former franchise members included Jeff Nelson, David Cone, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and John Wetteland. Mo’s longtime manager Joe Torre and once GM Gene Michael were in attendance to be there for Rivera.

Upon showing the video tributes, and the giving of gifts, and the live performance of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, the Yankees honored Mo in one of the biggest ways, by retiring his No. 42.

But once the celebrating ended before the game, the Yankees still had some celebrating left to do during the game, as Andy Pettitte, who announced on Friday that he would be joining Rivera in riding off into the sunset at the conclusion of the season, would take the mound in his final start at Yankee Stadium.

Pettitte took the mound, seemingly pumped by the emotions of the day, he was perfect through the first 4.2 inning before issuing a walk to Pablo Sandoval, and he took his no-hitter into the 6^th inning, and it lasted until Ahire Adrianza hit solo homerun off Pettitte with one out in the inning, breaking up both the no-no and the shutout.

Though that didn't faze Pettitte, as Yankees manager Joe Girardi let him working into the 8^th inning as he enter with 102 pitches. Giving him the chance to pitch through the inning, Pettitte only lasted as long as it took to give up a double to Sandoval to start the inning, which would come around to score on a double by Tony Abreu off David Robertson.

Pettitte pitched great, giving up just two runs on two hits, while walking only one and striking out six, continuing to be the Yankees’ best start over the past few weeks. He left to a standing ovation by the sold-out crowd, and was greet by hugs from all of his teammates in the dugout. It was the perfect way to end his Yankee Stadium career.

The only problem surrounding Pettitte is that the Yankees’ bats were still living in the past, while playing a game against the San Francisco Giants in the present.

The Yankees only managed to score one run against the Giants, a solo homerun by Mark Reynolds in the 3^rd inning. Other than that, it was another poor offensive showing by the Bombers, who put up 11 runs in the first two games of the series against San Francisco pitching.

Several major scoring chances had come and gone, including in the 8^th inning when the Yanks set up runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with nobody out to open the bottom of the frame after a single by Alex Rodriguez and a double by Robinson Cano.

Zoilo Almonte, who was pinch-running for A-Rod, stupidly ran himself into the first out of the inning when Alfonso Soriano ripped a groundball to third base and Almonte took off for home, but was gunned down by at least five steps.

"Sometimes we make mistakes, and that's the way it is," Yankees third-base coach Rob Thomson said. "He was being aggressive, he saw something and he reacted to it."

Then with two outs in the inning, and runners on 1^st and 2^nd, Eduardo Nunez lined a base hit to center field, and with Cano running home, left fielder Juan Perez fired a throw to home plate that beat Cano, and keep the Giants leading 2-1.

And trailing in the 9^th, facing Giants closer Sergio Romo, who has always look up to Rivera, shutdown the Yankees in order to close out a loss for the Yanks that can only do harm to their ever shrinking Wild Card chances.

"It's hard to believe that we're sitting here and that we lost another game," said Pettitte. "This was a big loss, there's no doubt about it. We've got to try to pull off a miracle here."

But before the Yankees managed to struggle in the present with the task at hand – beat the last place Giants and remain at least three games back in the Wild Card race – they were reminded of the past, as well as reminded that the future is shaping up to be nowhere near the level it’s been in the last decade.

The most likely scenario is that next Sunday in Houston, the Yankees will finish up their season against the Astros without making the playoffs. Rivera and Pettitte will officially retire from the game of baseball, and from the Yankees.

Robinson Cano – the Yankees best player and biggest hope for success in the future -- will become a free-agent, and there’s always the possibility that he could resign with another club, leaving the Yankees for good.

Girardi, too, will be a pending free-agent this winter, and although the signs say that he wants to come back as much as the Yankees would love to have him back, there are sure to be plenty of job openings for a

major league manager all around the league.

The Washington Nationals will be losing Davey Johnson after this season when he retires; the Los Angeles Angels could have an opening after an awful season from a team with high expectations; and the Chicago Cubs have been rumored to be very interesting the Yankees’ manager.

And I still haven't even mentioned Derek Jeter. We really don't know what to expect from The Captain as he enters the 2014 season in which he'll turn 40-years-old, as this could possibly his final season, if not, his next to last in the league.

So Sunday in the Bronx, the Yankees honored and celebrated the 18-year career of Mariano Rivera. They brought back many of the greatest Yankees from the past decade to celebrate to past. Afterwards, the Yankees took to the field and played sloppy and uninspiring in the present.

In the process, Andy Pettitte and Rivera left to field, for Pettitte the second to last time, and for Rivera one of the last times in his career, reminding us that the end of an era is staring us in the face, and a new era is about to begin, and I must say, it doesn’t look good.

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Yanks Fall The The Giants 2-1 On Mariano Rivera Day

Today was all about Mariano Rivera. The Yankees honored him for about 50-minutes before Sunday's game, retiring his number, giving him gifts, and there was even a live performance of "Enter sandman" by Metallica.

But there was still a game to be played, and Andy Pettitte was apart of it, taking the mound for the Yankees in his final start at Yankee Stadium, and possibly the final start of his career as he will retire at the end of the season.

The day that started out in celebration by the Yankees had turned into celebration by the San Francisco Giants after taking the lead in the 8th inning with a double off David Robertson, ruining Mariano Rivera Day in the Bronx, as the Yankees fell to the Giants 2-1 in the series finale.

"It's hard to believe that we're sitting here and that we lost another game," said Pettitte. "This was a big loss, there's no doubt about it. We've got to try to pull off a miracle here."

Pettitte was sharp to start the game, he was attacking hitters and running through innings fairly quickly, as he was nearly perfect through the first five innings before issuing a walk to Pablo Sandoval with two outs in the 5th.

Even without the perfect game, Pettitte still had a no-hitter going into the 6th inning, but it was broken up after Ehire Adrianza hit a solo homerun to left field off Pettitte, giving the Giants their first hit, as well as breaking up the shutout with one swing.

There was only one thing hurting Pettitte throughout the afternoon, and it was that the Yankees weren't scoring him any runs. The only run put up by the Yanks was a solo homerun by Mark Reynolds in the 3rd inning off Giants starter Yusmeiro Petit, who was pretty effective on the mound, giving up just the one run on six hits, while striking out seven over 6.1 innings.

With 102 pitches through seven innings, Yankees manager Joe Girardi sent Pettitte back out for the 8th inning, but after giving up a double to Sandoval to open the inning, Girardi called for Robertson out of the bullpen, giving up Pettitte a chance to let the Yankee Stadium crowd give him one last standing ovation.

"It was a great moment for me and I really enjoyed it," Pettitte said. "I was glad I got the opportunity to do that, and the fans were awesome, just like they've always been to me."

Pettitte was great, but didn't get much help behind him. He only gave up one run on two hits, while walking one and striking out six on 104 pitches over seven plus innings in his final home start in pinstripes.

Robertson, the Yankees' likely closer of the future, came up big for the other team once again, getting a groundout to start his day before giving up a double to Tony Abreu to score pinch-runner Nick Noonan from second base. Girardi saw enough of Robertson, forcing him to bring in the man of the hour, Rivera.

"I feel like I let everybody down," Robertson said. "I let Andy down."

Mariano, this time entering to the recorded version of "Enter Sandman", quickly retired the first two hitters he face in the 8th to end the inning, then after the first two Giants hitters reached base to start the 9th, he set the next three down, including a double play to end the 9th.

Rivera helped keep the Yankees in the game, but the offense also helped keep the Giants winning this game, as they had several chances throughout the afternoon to put some runs on the board, like in the 8th when they had runners on 2nd and 3rd to start the inning, but Zoilo Almonte ran himself out at home for the first out, then a few batters later, Robinson Cano was thrown out at home on a base hit by Eduardo Nunez to end the inning.

"Sometimes we make mistakes, and that's the way it is," Yankees third-base coach Rob Thomson said. "He was being aggressive, he saw something and he reacted to it."

The loss sets the Yankees back to four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians in the Wild Card race after both of those teams won on Sunday, and with six games left to play for the Bombers, the Yanks and Rays open up a make or break three-game set in the Bronx on Tuesday.

"We're still alive, obviously, but this one really hurts," Girardi said. "It's tough."

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Pettitte Makes Final Home Start On Mo's Special Day

Happy Mariano Rivera Day. Today in the Bronx, the Yankees will be holding a pregame ceremony to honor the great Mariano Rivera as he prepares to enter retire after next Sunday's regular season finale in Houston -- assuming the Yanks don't make the playoffs.

It's sure going to be an emotional day at Yankee Stadium, and in the process of celebrating Mo, the Yankees are also trying to get the sweep of the San Francisco Giants after taking Friday's opener 5-1, and winning on Saturday 6-0 after a dominating complete-game shutout by Ivan Nova -- his second of the season.

With just seven games remaining this season, the Yankees still have a lot of work to do in order the clinch a Wild Card berth, and with the Tampa Bay Rays coming into the Bronx this week for three-games, the Yanks have a great chance to control their own destiny.

"If we play like we played last night and today, we can win all seven games that are left," Alfonso Soriano said. "But we try not to put too much pressure on us; just play one game at a time like we played today, come back tomorrow with the same energy and try to win tomorrow."

Today's Lineup vs San Francisco:

Ichiro RF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Granderson CF
Nunez 3B
Reynolds 1B
Ryan SS
Stewart C
Pettitte LHP

Pitching Preview:

This may be Mariano Rivera's day, but it'll be Andy Pettitte's game. Today against the Giants, Pettitte will take the mound for the Yankees two days after announcing that he'll retiring at the end of this season alongside Rivera, making this his final start at Yankee Stadium.

"It's like brothers," Rivera said of him and Pettitte going out together. "We came up with this organization at the same time. We've been through good times and bad times, but at the same time, we have enjoyed what we do. Now we're going out together, too."

Over the past few weeks, Pettitte has been probably the Yankees' best starter. In 12 starts since the All-Star break, he's only won three of those starts, mostly because of run support problems, but he does have an ERA of 3.30 over that span. He hasn't given up more than three runs since August 5th, spanning 8 starts.

Pettitte is coming off a good start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday when he gave up just one run on six hits over 6.1 innings, but the Yankees couldn't score any runs to back him up, losing to the Jays, 2-0. Sunday will bring us one game closer to the end of an era, with Pettitte and Rivera leaving Jeter as the last remaining member of the Core Four.

"We've had a great run here," Pettitte said. "Part of me coming back was to try to do this run again with the group of guys that we had here, and it's starting to get toward the end of that. We had a great run here, and my time here is done."

Taking the mound for the Giants in this series finale will be right-hander Yusmeiro Petit, who is 4-0 since being called up on August 23rd. One of those wins came against the Padres when he was one out away from pitching a perfect game.

Petit is going for his fifth win in seven contests with the Giants. His last start was against the New York Mets on Tuesday when he gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks, but was still able to take home the victory.

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A-Rod's Grand Slam Leads Yanks To 5-1 Win Over The Giants

Somewhere off in the distance, you can almost hear Bud Selig smashing his TV with a baseball bat.

Heading towards another poor offensive showing, and a pitching battle that looked like we could be playing all night, Alex Rodriguez blasted his major league record 24th career grand slam in the 7th inning to lead the Yankees to a 5-1 victory over the Giants Friday night in the Bronx.

"You just want to come up in a big spot and get a big hit," said Rodriguez. "Hopefully, that hit gets your offense going."

CC Sabathia wasn't at his best once again, but he battled for the Yankees to give them seven innings of one-run ball, keeping the Yanks in the game long enough for A-Rod to break the 1-1 tie in the 7th.

"We really needed it," manager Joe Girardi said. "Like I've said, I don't know if we can afford to lose any more games. That's the bottom line at this point. I kind of look at every game from here on out as extremely, extremely important."

The Yankees entered the 7th inning against former Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, who came into the inning have given up just one-run on a solo homerun by Alfonso Soriano in the 2nd inning. Eduardo Nunez singled to open the frame, then after a strikeout by Lyle Overbay, Nunie stole second and Brendan Ryan was hit by a pitch.

JR Murphy hit a groundball the third base that was stopped on a nice play by Pablo Sandoval, by the throw to first was offline, leaving Murphy safe at first. Then Ichiro walked against Lincecum to load the bases, forcing Giants manager Bruce Bochy to bring in George Kontos, who the Yankees traded for Chris Stewart last season.

Lincecum had been pitching pretty well all night against the Yankees, but he just seemed to run out of gas at the end, as he wasn't able to finish off the 7th, getting tagged with four runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out six on 121 pitches over 6.2 innings. Then, of course, A-Rod hit a grand slam off Kontos to put the Bombers up 5-1.

"That's a nice job by Tim, and he just had some tough luck there that last inning," Bochy said.

That set up a scoreless 8th inning by David Robertson, paving the way for the great Mariano Rivera to start off his final homestand with a perfect 1-2-3 9th inning -- non-save situation -- to shutout the Giants and give the Yankees only their second win in the last seven games.

"You don't want to get in a situation where they have a couple guys on and you have to bring [Rivera] in," Girardi said. "This way you have wiggle room. We have an off-day on Monday, so I figure I can use him three days in a row."

In between, Sabathia was on the mound for the Yankees, and although he pitched at the level that would have warranted more than just one run against any other team -- like the Red Sox, who hit CC hard last Saturday -- he still managed to fight through seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits, while walking three and striking out four on 107 pitches.

"I was kind of erratic a little bit with the control, but we were able to make pitches and keep them off the board for the most part," Sabathia said.

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CC On The Mound As Yanks Open Up Series With The Giants

At this point, it's almost impossible to guess whether or not the Yankees are still in this postseason race. While they only appear to be a few games back in the Wild Card race with only nine games left, the Yankees' play on the field suggests they're not capable of pulling off this playoff run.

The Yankees went into Toronto after being swept by the Boston Red Sox, then lost Tuesday's opener against the Blue Jays 2-0, before coming back for a four-run 8th inning on Wednesday, followed by another disappointing game on Thursday, falling 6-2 after Joba Chamberlain gave up a three-run homerun to Adam Lind in the 7th.

Now the Yankees come back to the Bronx for their final homestand of the season, opening tonight for three-games against the San Francisco Giants, then finishing up with their final home game on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

This won't just be the Yankees final stop of the stadium this season, because it will also be the last time that Mariano Rivera, and now Andy Pettitte, pitch in front of the New York crowd. Pettitte, who announced today that he is retiring, will make his final home start on Sunday.

Tonight's Lineup vs San Francisco:

Ichiro RF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Granderson CF
Nunez 3B
Overbay 1B
Ryan SS
Murphy C
Sabathia LHP

Pitching Preview:

On a day when one Yankee left-hander is on the spotlight before the game, another talented lefty, CC Sabathia, will be in the spotlight during the game, as he takes the mound for the Yankees tonight against the Giants as they open up their six-game homestand.

Sabathia is hoping to turn things around on the mound as they season starts to come to an end, this has certainly been a year that CC not only wants to forget, but finish on a high note.

CC's last outing was a tough one against the Red Sox last Saturday when he was roughed up for nine hits, five runs in six innings.

"It's very frustrating, because everybody keeps telling me I'm close, but I don't see it," Sabathia said. "I want results and I know the team wants results. I know the fans want results. It's just tough not being able to deliver."

Taking the mound for the Giants is a former Cy Young winner, and a pitcher that no-hit the San Diego Padres earlier in the season in Tim Lincecum, won four straight decisions for the Giants.

Lincecum allowed three runs on five hits, while striking out six in six innings for his 10th win of the season during his last start against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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