I’ll make this short.
With a save in Monday’s 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is now the all-time saves leader with 602.
Here are ten things about Rivera’s 602 saves.
Since Mariano Rivera inherited the New York Yankees closer’s job prior to the 1997 season, there have been 110 saves tallied by other members of the bullpen. Now, while that sounds like a lot, consider this…Rivera has 597 by comparison.
68
60
In May 2010, mariano Rivera tied Eric Gagne for the most consecutive saves at home with 51. Sure, it isn’t a Major League record, but given the Bombers play in, arguably, the toughest division in baseball…51 straight at The Stadium is impressive.
42
25
We all know Mariano Rivera enters Yankees Stadium to “Enter Sandman”, right? Sure, that’s been documented plenty. But did you know that the album the track comes from (“Metallica” by Metallica) is the 25th best-selling album of all-time in America?
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Due to injury, Mariano Rivera saved a career-worst 28 saves in 2002. But picking up the slack was Steve Karsay. Karsay, incidentally, recorded his only saves as a member of the Yankees during the time Rivera was on the shelf.
4
Let’s break this down. Mariano Rivera now has a record 602 regular season saves, 42 postseason saves and, four All-Star Game saves. Anyone who says “saves don’t matter” haven’t watched the 648 games that have been watched with Rivera left standing on the mound.
And speaking of the “saves don’t matter” crowd…here’s some fuel for their fire. 21 times Mariano Rivera came in to secure the victory by only facing one batter.
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