Toronto — Mariano Rivera usually is a certainty to close out a game in the ninth inning for the New York Yankees, and Vernon Wells usually is a sure thing to catch any ball that he can run down for the Toronto Blue Jays in centre field and the suburban area.
But this was not a usual game. Rivera blew a save for the second time in a row, but he picked up the victory in the 10th inning because Tony Clark's game-winning double bounced off Wells's glove in left centre after he had made a long, hard run.
The result was a 6-5 victory for the Yankees before 30,041 at the open SkyDome.
If Wells had made the catch — it would have been of highlight calibre — the inning would have ended with the game still tied 5-5, a score the Blue Jays attained on Chris Gomez's two-run, two-out single against Rivera in the ninth inning.
"It was a long run, it's a play I expect myself to make," Wells said. "It's one of those balls you have to go after as hard as you can. If you catch it, you catch it, if you don't ..... hopefully if I get a chance again I make that play."
Clark, who struck out three times in the game and four times on Sunday in a loss to the Boston Red Sox, hit his second double of the game against Blue Jays closer Jason Frasor, who entered the game in the 10th inning.
He walked his first batter, Jorge Posada, who hit a first-inning grand slam against starter Sean Douglass, who didn't give up another run in his five innings.
Hideki Matsui followed with a single to right field, but Bernie Williams grounded into a double play, so there was a glimmer of hope for the Blue Jays. But then Clark got his hit, and at first it appeared as though it might go out for a home run.
"You don't know if it's going out or not," Wells said. "You just run as hard as you can to a spot and hope you get there. I got there, I just didn't make the play.
"I thought I hit it well, but I got really uncomfortable when I saw Vernon cover all sorts of ground."
Rivera retired the side in order in the bottom of the 10th inning to go 2-1 for the season while holding at 35 saves.
Rivera also blew the save on Saturday in an 11-10 loss to Red Sox at Fenway Park. But this time he picked up his second victory in his two appearances against the Blue Jays this season.
He was the winner in a 1-0 game at Yankee Stadium Thursday when Ruben Sierra hit a two-out homer in the bottom of the ninth inning.
But the Yankees said that last night's outing didn't resemble Rivera's outing against the Red Sox.
"Saturday, it looked like he was wild," manager Joe Torre said. "He was throwing balls under the feet of left-handed hitters. He was just a lot better today. He looked out of whack the other day. That wasn't the case today."
"Saturday was a fluke," Posada said. "Today, he was a lot better, but they hit his pitches."
Rivera agreed: "I felt very good today. The big thing is we won the game."
So what if someone were to ask Rivera whether there's anything wrong? "My answer is that there is nothing wrong," he said. "Iit just happens."
For all of their mammoth payroll and their collection of all-stars, the Yankees had to scramble mightily last night, even though it appeared as though their 4-0 first-inning lead against a pitcher who has been in Triple A most of the season was the beginning of a rout. And Douglass didn't get a call in the first inning on what appeared to be a third strike — judging from what was called later — on Derek Jeter, who then singled to start the rally.
But Carlos Delgado and Gregg Zaun hit solo homers against Yankees starter Javier Vazquez in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively. And Gomez hit a shallow sacrifice fly down the right-field line in the sixth to score Alexis Rios, who had doubled and taken third base on a wild pitch.
The Yankees scored a run in the ninth inning on Gary Sheffield's single against Vinnie Chulk, and it appeared that the Yankees were poised to win in the regulation nine innings.
Delgado started the bottom of the ninth inning with a single against Rivera, and Zaun followed with a double. Chris Woodward ran for Zaun. Then with two out, Gomez hit the game-tying single and took second base on the throw home. A single might have won the game, but pinch hitter Frank Menechino took a called third strike.
"You come back against one of the best of the game, you think momentum is on your side," Wells said. "But that's why they are the Yankees. They tend to pull out the close games, especially against us."
Despite the early Yankees lead, the Blue Jays started to feel they could win. "Once we kept shutting them down," manager Carlos Tosca said. "And scored a run here, a run there, and then two get two runs off Rivera, I thought we had a chance to win in the ninth."
