HIGH ANXIETY
YANKEES fans were mostly spared this for a couple of decades — but even they know the unique pain of a bullpen blowup. As good as Mariano Rivera was as a closer — and he was better than anyone else who ever has done the job — he had more than a few moments when he reminded the world he was human, not infallible.
It’s what bullpens are, after all. They are fun houses, minus the fun. They can be roller-coaster rides without the brakes. Just think of what we’ve seen from the Mets’ and Yankees’ bullpens in the past two weeks alone, and it’s enough to make you want to start popping antacid tablets like peanut butter M&Ms.
Two weeks ago, within hours of each other, the teams exchanged bullpen disaster stories that had to be seen to be believed. First up, on July 11: the Mets, up 5-0 six batters into the game. Now, that was the most audibly displeasing of all modern inventions — a “bullpen game” — so it began with a relief pitcher (Aaron Loup) pitching well and a series of relievers for the relievers — Jerad Eickhoff, Miguel Castro, Jeurys Familia, Edwin Diaz — bleeding the lead away until it ended Pirates 6, Mets 5.
Then, the Yankees screamed: “Hold our beer!”
In an even more horrifying sequence, the Bombers entered the ninth inning in Houston with a comfy 7-2 lead before the Astros went single/double/double/double/single/lineout off Domingo German and Chad Green before Jose Altuve ended a perfectly miserable day by blasting one near the train tracks at Minute Maid Park to complete Astros 8, Yankees 7.
This past week, the dueling disasters didn’t occur on the same day, but they did offer up a philosophical question: What’s worse: Losing a game you once led 6-0 on a walk-off grand slam (as the Mets did in Pittsburgh last Saturday), or losing a game you led 3-1 with one out to go when a relief pitcher, an inning later, ties a major league record with four — four! — wild pitches? (Answer: It’s a push.) Mets fans are probably better acquainted with the headache- and ulcer-inducing aspects of bullpen life than Yankees fans. That probably goes back to Sept. 11, 1987, when normally reliable Roger McDowell offered up a two-out, ninth-inning, game-tying home run to the Cardinals’ Terry Pendleton in a game the Mets desperately needed as they stalked St. Louis.
From there is a fun montage of Armando Benitez highlights, with a few John Franco highlights tossed in there, and maybe the bookend images of Familia offering up a quick-pitch home run to Kansas City’s Alex Gordon in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series and a wild-card-game-losing three-run jack to the Giants’ Conor Gillaspie a year later, and then the ever-popular collection of Diaz’s Greatest Hits.
But the Yankees aren’t immune, of course. Ralph Terry served up Bill Mazeroski’s homer that clinched the 1960 World Series, which is a memory that still haunts Yankees fans of a certain age, as does the three-run homer by George Brett off Goose Gossage that all but ended the 1980 ALCS. And of course the Yankees’ past two seasons have ended thanks to home runs served up by Aroldis Chapman to Altuve (2019) and Tampa Bay’s Mike Brosseau.
But even when they enjoyed the daily and yearly brilliance of Rivera, there are a series of snapshots that linger. There is Sandy Alomar in Game 4 of the 1997 ALDS, and Luis Gonzalez in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, and the backto-back blemishes of Games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS, at Fenway.
Of course, if you have as many chances as Rivera did through the years, every now and again someone is going to figure you out. Law of averages. Law of percentages, and probability, all of that. None of which makes anyone feel any better. Bullpens, man.