{"id":30727,"date":"2020-04-19T21:10:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T01:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=30727"},"modified":"2020-06-07T00:24:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T04:24:45","slug":"mariano-rivera-postseason-better-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/04\/19\/mariano-rivera-postseason-better-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Postseason Mariano Rivera Was Even Better than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Postseason Mariano Rivera Was Even Better than You Think<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When time progresses further away from the end of a player\u2019s career, the appreciation of his greatness often diminishes. It can be because a fewer amount of living people saw him play. Recency Bias also creeps in. But sometimes it is due to self-appointed experts throwing unsubstantiated myths around or treating statistics superficially. It can also come from them misusing or misreading statistics altogether. One would think that the elite-level players, like retired New York Yankees<\/a> reliever and Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera<\/a><\/strong>, would be immune. However, even he is not.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all seen these tired and ill-informed arguments. The following sentence can sum them up. \u201cPretty easy to be great pitching one inning at a time with a three-run lead and the bases empty.\u201d The thing is \u2013 he didn\u2019t<\/em> pitch one inning at a time every time he came into a postseason game. He didn\u2019t<\/em> always come in with a three-run lead. The bases were not <\/em>empty every time he pitched. Rarely did he get a save, in fact, where he gave up an earned, unearned, or inherited run in the process.<\/p>\n

The truth is \u2013 in the postseason, Rivera was even better than a lot of us realize. And most baseball fans already know that he was insanely good. He pitched 141 postseason innings in 96 appearances that were spread over 16 seasons. Only twice did he allow a home run \u2013 Sandy Alomar Jr.<\/a><\/strong> in Game Four of the 1997 ALDS and Jay Payton<\/a><\/strong> in Game Two of the 2000 World Series. He allowed 11 earned runs (out of 13 total), giving him a career postseason ERA of 0.70. Of the 53 runners he inherited when entering a game, only ten scored \u2013 19%. He also allowed 86 total hits (19 for extra bases) and 21 walks for a WHIP of 0.759.<\/p>\n

Insanely High Save Percentage<\/strong><\/h3>\n