Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter are key in double play that helps New York Yankees win Game 2

By Mike Lupica
The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com
Friday, October 30th 2009, 4:00 AM

Antonelli/News

Mariano Rivera on the mound and Derek Jeter (below) in the infield prove to be a winning combination in the eighth inning.


There was a moment, right before Mo Rivera had to make another pitch in the World Series, make a big pitch and get a big out, where there was a conference at the mound. Derek Jeter came in from shortstop and Jorge Posada came out from behind the plate and there the three of them were, in the middle of it all again at Yankee Stadium on a night like this. Rivera, Jeter, Posada. The Yankees were ahead, 3-1, in Game 2 and Rivera was already in there in the eighth, and now the Phillies had Jimmy Rollins on second and Shane Victorino on first, one out, Chase Utley at the plate. The Yankees needed a pitch from Rivera, an out, needed the game.

In the clubhouse later, Rivera was asked what the conversation was about at the mound and he said, "We just wanted to make sure we kept an eye on Rollins at second. The basics."

The basics. After all the winning he had done in games like this, the Yankees needed more winning from him. Rivera got behind Utley. If he walked him, the bases were loaded and it was him against Ryan Howard, a run-producing machine, now and always. It would have been Howard, the best money hitter of this baseball October, against the greatest money player of them all.

A.J. Burnett was gone by now, after pitching the kind of game he was hired to pitch, giving the Phillies just one run in seven innings. Pedro Martinez was gone, even if he had shown the Stadium and all the people yelling "Who's your daddy?" that he is still a great opponent for the New York Yankees, for any Yankee Stadium, even at 38, even without a fastball that can get to 90, even just going on guile and heart and memory. He had pitched into the seventh last night, left after six hits, finally ended up being charged with all three Yankee runs.

He was still something to see. He had talked on Wednesday, when he talked about everything except President Obama's health-care plan, about how Mo Rivera is the pitcher he has always admired the most.

Now that pitcher had to make a pitch in the eighth. The count went all the way to 3-2 on Utley. Charlie Manuel, the Phillies manager, elected not to send the runners, thinking Utley would never hit into a double play. Utley hit a hard ground ball to Robinson Cano's left. Cano got the ball away to Jeter for the force on Victorino, who came into the captain of the Yankees hard. Came in hard and got him good on the outfield side of second base.

"Shane got there fast," Jeter said.

Got there and tried to take out the captain of the Yankees with a clean hit. But Jeter got the ball off and made a perfect throw to Mark Teixeira, and Utley was out by a step. Or safe, if you're a Phillies fan. Rivera made the pitch and Jeter made the turn and the Yankees turned the double play. Rivera was out of the eighth. The lead stayed at 3-1. Howard walked back to the dugout. The Yankees were going to win Game 2, not go down to Philadelphia down two games in the Series.

"A tough double play to turn," Jeter said in front of his locker. "But a huge play at the time."

Not just a huge play. The real ending for Game 2. Rivera was asked about Jeter's play and said, "Not bad for an old man."

Somebody said, "You're just supposed to be the old man," and the great Rivera said, "Then he's the one who comes after me."

The Phillies got one more runner on in the ninth, a two-out double from Raul Ibañez. Then Rivera threw his 39th pitch of another two-inning save - and even with a day off that is an awful lot - and Matt Stairs struck out. But that wasn't Rivera's game. His game was the pitch to Utley. When he had to make that pitch, he did. When Jeter had to make that turn, he did. It is how they did all that winning together once, try to do that kind of winning again.

It doesn't happen this way without Burnett pitching the way he did, getting ahead of hitters all night long, not just a fastball on this night, a tight curveball, too, the kind Cliff Lee had in Game 1. Lee gave up one unearned run, went the distance, struck out 10, walked nobody. Burnett struck out nine, walked two, gave the Phillies just four hits, won the game he was hired to win. When it was over, they asked him what it was like to finally pitch in the World Series, and if the occasion was everything he always thought it would be.

"It was way more than I thought," Burnett said. "You try to prepare yourself for these games, this place, this crowd ..."

Big night at the place. Burnett pitched the way he did, Teixeira hit a home run to put the Yankees on the board, Hideki Matsui hit one off Pedro and got the Yankees ahead. Posada knocked in the kind of add-on run in the seventh that the Phillies had gotten in the eighth and ninth the night before.

So Thursday night Posada did something, too. After that came the double play in the top of the eighth. Rivera needed to make a pitch. Jeter needed to make a play. The Yankees got the game they needed. Game on in the Series.