by Mark Murphy
Boston Herald
Monday, April 15, 2002
The cutter was about as nasty as any that Mariano Rivera throws.
The problem is that this one got away, and sailed right up at Shea Hillenbrand, at eye level, with the shadows creeping in on Fenway Park.
The Red Sox third baseman pitched back and hit the dirt just in time, slowly got back on his feet, and methodically dusted himself off. The chilling moment lasted several seconds more before Hillenbrand stepped back up to the plate, before flying out to right and trotting off the field without looking at Rivera.
It would have been easy, thinking back to Hillenbrand's eighth-inning homer off Rivera on Saturday, to think the worst about Rivera's intentions while saving the Yankees' 6-2 win over the Red Sox yesterday.
One at-bat earlier in the seventh inning, Hillenbrand had singled to left off Mike Mussina to extend his career-high hitting streak to 10 games - second longest in the American League behind Minnesota's Jacque Jones, who extended his major league-leading streak to 12 games yesterday.
But Hillenbrand wouldn't bite.
``I have no reaction at all to it,'' he said. ``That's just how it goes. I don't care.''
Asked if he thought Rivera had thrown at him, Hillenbrand vigorously shook his head and said, ``No. He's too good a pitcher to do that. All of his pitches were effective.''
Rivera was understandably concerned about the suggestion that he would target a hitter in some way out of the strike zone.
``He was kind of diving into the ball, and the ball just took off - a lot of batters dive on them,'' the Yankees closer said of his cutter, which tails away from right-handed hitters, and yesterday pulled Hillenbrand over the plate.
``I have to throw inside,'' Rivera said. ``I don't try to hurt nobody or hit nobody. But I'm going to throw inside.
``(Hitters) know it,'' he said. ``They've known me for years. Left and right, I'm going to throw inside. I don't mean to hit nobody.''
And yesterday, thankfully, the result was a breath-stopping near-miss.
``No, only because I could see what happened,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said of whether Rivera faced Hillenbrand with the issue of payback in mind. ``He threw six straight balls at that point, and he was flying open. (Saturday) he didn't get the ball in enough.''
Hillenbrand made him pay for that mistake Saturday by handing Rivera his first loss and blown save of the season.
And yesterday he returned to extend that hitting streak, marking the first time a Red Sox player has hit safely in the first 10 games of the season since Tim Naehring (11 games) and Lee Tinsley (14) accomplished the feat in 1995.
``Right now, he's carrying the club,'' said Rickey Henderson.