Mariano Rivera – 1,000 Games and Counting

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Yesterday, when Mariano Rivera entered the game in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays, he became the first pitcher to ever appear in 1,000 games for the same team and the 15th pitcher overall to accomplish the feat.

In those 1,000 games, Mo has pitched in 1,171 innings, has struck out 1,068, has an ERA of 2.22, a WHIP of 1.002 and an ERA+ of 205 (these stats include 10 games as a starting pitcher).

To put those numbers in perspective; Trevor Hoffman appeared in 1,035 games and pitched 1,089.1 innings, struck out 1,133, had an ERA of 2.87, a WHIP of 1.058 and an ERA+ of 141 (the third-best ERA+ for all the pitchers with 1,000 or more games while the second-best is Hoyt Wilhelm’s 147).

What makes Mo’s accomplishment even more impressive his he’s done it all with one pitch. That one pitch is arguably the best pitch baseball has ever seen, a cut fastball. Every hitter has known what pitch was coming, yet, even after 17 seasons they still can’t hit it and it’s still breaking bats.

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