Mariano Rivera recorded his 39th save of the season on Wednesday night in St. Petersburg as the Yankees swept the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a three game series.
He entered the game in the eighth with two outs and two runners on as Flash Gordon ran into trouble. Piniella originally put up Eric Munson to pinch hit for Alex Gonzales but when Rivera entered he pinch hit Eduardo Perez for Munson. Rivera got behind in the count and walked him to load the bases. He then got Toby Hall to ground to Cano at second to end the inning.
The Yankees scored two insurance runs in the top of the ninth to extend the score to 9-5.
Rivera regained his control in the ninth and struck out Nick Green on three pitches for the first out and then got Julio Lugo to hit a one hop liner to Cano at deep second base for the second out. Carl Crawford was then up and Mo retired him on a Baltimore chop back to the mound. The Yankees won the game 9-5 and moved to within 1/2 game of the idle Indians in the wild card standings. With the Red Sox losing to Oakland the Yankees are now only 1 1/2 games behind in the AL East.
Rivera now has 375 career saves and his season ERA is now lowered to 1.39.
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