This should blow over

Ding-dong, Rivera was done. Sox fans were excited. But you know what? False alarm. Rivera picked himself up and resumed his status as the greatest closer of his generation.

Last Sunday, Oakland infielder Marco Scutaro hit a three-run homer off Rivera to stun the Yankees in their West Coast finale. It took five days to get Rivera back on the mound because the Yankees blitzed the Indians twice -- 10-3 and 9-2 -- and then came from behind to beat them Thursday, 8-6.

Last night, Yankees manager Joe Torre sensed something wasn't quite right in the eighth inning when Mike Myers and Luis Vizcaino struggled to protect a 6-2 lead. Rivera started warming up. This was surprising because it was said this spring that Rivera would be strictly a one-inning closer this season.

It got to 6-3 when Rivera was summoned.

There were runners at the corners with one out. At the very worst, the Sox would get another run, Rivera would get out of the inning, and then retire the Sox in the ninth. But nothing went according to plan after Andy Pettitte had outdueled Curt Schilling and Alex Rodriguez had put on another show with two homers and four RBIs.

"It's something you can't predict, but it's something we have to bounce back from," said Torre. "I'm not disappointed, I'm just disappointed in the results. Andy pitched a great game and got us where we wanted to be. We put ourselves in good position. You never have enough runs in this ballpark. We know that. With that lead heading into the eighth inning, we should win the game.

"We had a plan," Torre continued. "If [Myers] had gotten Ortiz [who doubled] he would have pitched to Manny [Ramírez] and then [J.D.] Drew. Otherwise, we had Vizcaino ready. We were certainly ready for whatever eventuality happened. The one that wasn't planned was Mo, but we gave him plenty of notice."

Rivera knew the situation was ripe for him. He knew he'd be called upon to regain his confidence.

"We warned him earlier that if things started getting out of hand, he'd get the call," said Torre. "He had time mentally and physically. He hadn't pitched since last Sunday. I felt the inning he had to pitch was the eighth."