Mariano Rivera wasn't his usual automatic self on Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, but he was able to get big outs when he needed them as the Yankees defeated Cleveland 5-3 to sweep the weekend series.
Rivera entered in the eighth with two runners on and two outs. He faced Ryan Garko and got ahead of him but ended up hitting him with a pitch to load the bases. Jhonny Peralta had a tough at bat but grounded hard into a force play to end the inning.
The Yankees added a big insurance run on a Melky single and stolen base and a clutch single from Jeter to score him.
In the bottom of the ninth, Jason Michaels led off with a single and Chris Gomez followed with another single. Franklin Gutierrez then doubled up the alley in left center and Michaels scored to make it 5-3. With runners on second and third and no outs, Rivera then proved why he is the best of all time. He struck out Cabrera and Grady Sizemore and got Casey Blake to fly to right to end the game.
For Rivera, it's his 19th save of the season and 432nd of this career and his season ERA now stands at 2.88.
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