Mood Swings as Rivera Negates Yankees' Rally

Orioles 6, Yankees 3

The decibel level at Yankee Stadium soared like a firecracker during the top of the 10th inning yesterday. The 53,363 fans were ecstatic for two justifiable reasons. Shelley Duncan had tied the score against the Baltimore Orioles with a three-run homer in the ninth inning. And Mariano Rivera, a model of consistency this season, had just taken the mound.

ecstatic a. 狂喜的，著迷的
justifiable a. 有道理的

But it got quiet in a hurry. Rivera suffered a meltdown, allowing three runs, as the Orioles handed the Yankees a deflating 6-3 defeat.

meltdown n. 溶解

After the game, Rivera stood by his locker and made a statement that earlier in his stellar 13-year career seemed almost unfathomable.

stellar a. 主要的，顯著的
unfathomable a. 不可理解的

“I'm a human being,” Rivera said. “I'm allowed to make mistakes.”

Rivera had been having a sensational season until this week. On Monday, he blew a save for the first time in 20 opportunities. The Yankees came back to win that game, 7-6. But he was not as fortunate yesterday afternoon as the Orioles hit him hard.

sensational a. 引起轟動的

With the score tied, 3-3, Rivera allowed a leadoff double to Nick Markakis, who scored the go-ahead run when the next batter, Miguel Tejada, doubled. After recording an out, Rivera gave up a two-run home run to Aubrey Huff, erasing Duncan’s heroics.

The Yankees (67-53) remained five games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. Boston lost to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 6-5, yesterday. But the Yankees have lost two consecutive games after winning 9 of 10, a troubling trend with the Detroit Tigers in town today to start a four-game series.

And they have lost four consecutive series to the Orioles for the first time since 1982, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Several Yankees came to Rivera’s defense yesterday, saying he was so good that his mistakes were forgivable.

“He just didn't look like he hit his spots,” Manager Joe Torre said. “It looked like he made too many pitches that were fatter in the zone than he's used to doing. It's one of those things that you know it's going to happen from time to time.”

from time to time adv. occasionally, once in a while

Torre, Rivera and General Manager Brian Cashman said that Rivera, who will turn 38 in November, was not experiencing any physical problems. Around this time last season, he began having difficulties with his right forearm.

Rivera (3-4) was able to laugh off his outing Monday. But he spoke somberly yesterday.

somber a. 昏暗的；鬱悶的

“It hurts because your teammates are giving you the opportunity to pitch, the opportunity to be able to hold them and come back and score and win the game,” Rivera said. “I wasn't able to do that. It's bad.”

The Yankees went scoreless over the first eight innings. But with one swing, Duncan tied the score, 3-3. With the Yankees down to their last out, Duncan stepped to the plate with runners on second and third. He swung at an 0-1 pitch from the left-handed reliever Jamie Walker, knocking the ball over the left-field wall.

Duncan, who has six homers in 16 games since making his major league debut July 20, delighted the fans with a curtain call. He said he envisioned the homer after Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui led off the inning with singles.

“I always prepare myself in innings like that,” Duncan said. “I count down the outs and play all the what is in my head. I tell myself, What’s the situation going to be like if I get a chance to come up?”

The comeback nullified a poor start by the offense, which struggled against the Orioles’ sensational starter Érik Bédard, who had won 8 of his previous 10 starts. Bédard scattered four singles in seven innings. He struck out eight to improve his season total to 207, which leads the major leagues.

nullify v. 抵消

The Yankees, who used eight right-handed batters to start the game, went hitless until Alex Rodriguez led off the fourth inning with a single up the middle. Rodriguez finished with a game-high four hits.

“He's pretty much been doing that to the whole league,” Derek Jeter said, referring to Bédard.

With Bédard pitching so well, there was little room for error by the rookie Phil Hughes, who was making his fifth start and the third since coming off the disabled list.

Hughes allowed six hits over five innings, but his pitch count soared. In the fourth inning, when the Orioles scored two runs, he made a mistake that proved costly.

With runners at second and third, Tike Redman hit a hard grounder that first baseman Andy Phillips fielded cleanly. Phillips tossed the ball to Hughes, who waited a beat before running to cover first base. The ball popped out of Hughes’s glove for an error, allowing two runs to score.

“You can live with physical stuff, leaving a couple balls up,” Hughes said. “But mental errors like that are just inexcusable, especially going against a guy like Bédard.”

Sean Henn and Edwar Ramírez, who were recalled yesterday, held the Orioles scoreless for four innings. But everything changed once Rivera got the ball.

Before ending an interview with reporters, Rivera indicated he had moved on from yesterday's debacle.

debacle n. 崩潰

“It's behind already,” Rivera said. “It's the past. What can I do?”