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Sat waiting for the inevitable call from skipper Joe Girardi. And finally, with the clock ticking toward the witching hour, it came.
The Yankees' call to arms.
How many times in the past decade or so had it come down to this, come down to Mo Rivera saving another big game?
Eight pitches later, Game 4 was over. A 7-4 win at Citizens Bank Park secured. The world champs went down in order — 1-2-3 — and now, trailing 3-1 in this World Series, the Phillies face a season on the brink.
For Girardi, it was a familiar scene. Before the game, he recalled the start of the Rivera Era.
"In 1996," the Yankees skipper said. "I was the catcher."
Girardi remembered something else as well. Rivera was a one-pitch pitcher.
But what a pitch.
"The cutter," Girardi said. "If there's been adjustment that he's made, it's been that pitch."
That pitch — the cut fastball — has elevated the Yankee closer to legendary status. The speed and power with which Rivera delivers the cutter has opponents calling it "the buzzsaw." He broke three of Atlanta slugger Ryan Klesko's bats in the 1999 World Series.
Coming into this Broad Street vs. Broadway World Series, Rivera was the guy most often cited as the biggest advantage the Yanks could claim over the Phils. Not surprising. The 39-year-old future Hall of Famer has more lock-downs to his credit than the gate-keepers at San Quentin.
"Moving the ball around, throwing strikes," Rivera said prior to Game 5. "That's the most important thing."
The Phils have seen Rivera in three of the first four games of this Fall Classic. In Game 2 at Yankee Stadium, the Fightin's forced the ageless ace to his absolute limit — 39 pitches over two innings. They were less selective in Game 3 at Citizens Bank Park. Taking their hacks and swinging from their heels, they fell on just five pitches.
"We can hit Rivera," Phils manager Charlie Manuel had boasted in the Bronx. "We can hit any closer. We've proved that. He's good, one of the best in baseball, if not the best. But I've seen our team handle good pitching. We're definitely capable of scoring runs late in the game."
Maybe, but while the Phils had made Rivera work, they hadn't made him wilt. He pitched the final two innings of Game 2 to save a 3-1 win — his 38th career postseason save — and notched the final two outs in Game 3 to close out an 8-5 victory.
His World Series mark for saves, his record-low postseason ERA of 0.76, his 526 career saves all have been achieved over the course of a 14-year career with a dominant pitch: The cutter.
"Definitely, I have to adapt," he said. "It has been a long career, so in that long career you have to make sure you make adjustments."
Rivera has done that, and the biggest adjustment has come in his approach to pitching. He now uses the whole plate, widens it, in fact, from 17 inches to as much as 22.
"I used to try to go inside, inside, inside and occasionally I went out," Rivera said. "Now I use the whole plate — the outside corner, the inside corner, up and down. When you make those adjustments, the hitters will tell if you have to make any (more) adjustments. (If) you do, you have to find a way to do it."
Rivera has found a way. Found a way to take one pitch and, varying its speed and location, build a Hall of Fame career around it.
"It's been one pitch for my whole career almost," he said. "But it does a lot of things. It doesn't go in the same direction always, and it's not always in the same spot."
"His cutter," Girardi said, "might have more movement now than it used to."
What hasn't changed about Rivera is the manner in which he carries himself. Quiet, humble, dignified, he impresses even longtime opponents.
"I see Mariano," the Phils' Pedro Martinez said, "and that's probably the player I admire the most because of how he does it. He's a humble man, a man of faith."
And he's a man who, despite years of success, is still willing to do the little things necessary to succeed at his craft.
"I've been preparing myself the same way that I pitched in my first game in the big leagues," he said. "I try always to do the same. For me, (the approach) hasn't changed."
Neither, it seems, have the results.
