Via the NY Post:
When [Mariano Rivera] arrived at Rogers Centre yesterday well ahead of most of his teammates, he sat down with the Yankees pitching coach and watched film of his recent outings.
After showing Rivera that his grip unintentionally had slid toward the side of the ball from the usual on-top position, Eiland escorted Rivera to the bullpen.
That’s where Rivera fired bullets to bullpen catcher Roman Rodriguez that popped the catcher’s mitt loud enough to be heard throughout the empty ballpark.
“This is my third year, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to sit him down and show him something on video or speak to him,” Eiland said of Rivera, who has flushed three of his last six save chances. “But this time we went to the film. He saw it and we went to work on his hand position and slot.”
[snip]
“You see it, and it clicks with you,” Rivera said of watching the video with Eiland. “I had to throw hard to fix it, but it’s corrected.”
As we’ve seen lately with Derek Jeter, even the all-time greats need help from time to time. Rivera might be 40 years old, but for most of this season he was as good as ever. A slight mechanical adjustment may be all he needs to correct himself and get back on top.
It’s really important that this sticks too. As all Yankee fans know, he is very important to the team’s success. The Yankees are 11-14 this month, obviously not a pretty record, but if he doesn’t blow those three saves then the Yankees are 14-11 and would already have the wild-card locked up—maybe even the division.
Related Stories
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com