Mason Miller's blown save vs. Brewers is getting Yankees' Mariano Rivera the love he deserves

Mason Miller's two year run of dominance has entranced the baseball world at large. New York Yankees fans aren't immune, fantasizing for a moment about what it would take to get him in pinstripes when it looked like the San Diego Padres were going to be sellers at the trade deadline.

Miller struck out 47.4% of hitters he faced this season en route to a 1.67 ERA and 1.17 FIP over 70 games and posted 38 saves. It was easy to be fascinated by how he carved up lineups with his 101 miles per hour heat and wipeout slider. However, some have gotten carried away and forgotten what the gold standard is for dominance at the closer position.

In Game 2 of the NLDS, we were all reminded that Miller is, in fact, human. Already down 1-0 in the series, the Padres decided to go to Miller for a two-inning save. After a three-up, three-down bottom of the eighth, things got dicey for San Diego's flamethrower in the bottom of the ninth.

Miller lost control of the strike zone and, with two outs in the frame, walked old friend Gary Sánchez to bring Jackson Chourio to the plate with the bases loaded and San Diego clinging to a 3-2 lead. The Brewers phenom turned a 101 MPH four-seamer into a single to center, plating both the tying and winning runs in dramatic walk-off fashion.

The exhilarating comeback made one thing clear. For as scary as Miller can be, he's got a long way to go to catch the greatest of all time and isn't close to Mariano Rivera in pressure-packed playoff situations. The meltdown reminded folks just how great Mo truly was.

As good as Yankees legend Mariano Rivera was in the regular season, he was even better in the playoffs

Rivera is MLB's all-time saves leader with a seemingly unbreakable 652. Trevor Hoffman comes in at second place with 601, and no one else in history has even reached the 500-save plateau, though Kenley Jansen is the active leader with 498. Miller is already 28 and, with just 88 career saves, likely never comes close to touching Mo.

Rivera, of course, wasn't just a compiler. He was a force to be reckoned with in the regular season, with a 2.21 career ERA over 1,283 2/3 innings and 1,173 strikeouts to his name. As amazing as all of that is, it pales in comparison to his October resume.

In the postseason, Rivera logged a mind-boggling 141 innings and allowed just 11 earned runs. That's good for a ridiculous 0.70 ERA. To put that into context, my favorite baseball stat of all time is the fact that more men (12) have walked on the moon than scored on Mariano Rivera in the playoffs. Let that sink in for a moment.

NBA personality and host of the Game Theory Podcast Sam Vecenie posted his amazement at Rivera's October achievements on Twitter/X, writing, "Watching the best closers in baseball semi-regularly get hammered in the playoffs -- even as closer stuff continues to get even more unhittable -- puts Mariano Rivera posting a 0.70 ERA in 141 postseason innings in an even more impossibly impressive light to me."

While the Rivera discourse was raging through social media, there were a handful of trolls who tried to poke holes in Rivera's impeccable postseason resume. One common, and incorrect, refrain was that Rivera didn't get called upon for two-inning saves that often. Quite the opposite, actually.

The Hammer of God was called upon for 31 saves of at least four outs, which included 14 saves of at least six outs. Rivera had 45 save opportunities in the playoffs and converted 42 of them, meaning the 14 times he went two innings represent 33% of his total postseason saves.

That's just the saves, too. Rivera made 96 total postseason appearances, so he wasn't always just reserved for save opportunities. In fact, one of his most iconic playoff performances was one where he was credited with the win. In what was one of the greatest Game 7s of all time, Mo entered the deciding matchup of the 2003 ALCS and threw three scoreless innings to set up Aaron Boone's series-clinching homer off of Tim Wakefield to vanquish the Red Sox.

The fact of the matter is, most of Rivera's regular-season saves were of the one-inning variety, but he could turn it on in the playoffs whenever it was needed. It should also be noted that Rivera did what he did at the peak of the steroid era, making his accomplishments even that much more impressive.

The last thing the haters will bring up is the 2001 World Series. Just remember, if the infield were playing at normal depth, that looper off of Luis Gonzalez's bat likely would have landed in Derek Jeter's glove. Luck just didn't happen to be on Mo's side.

But more importantly, Miller's failure reminded everyone of Mo's greatness. We likely won't ever see such a singular talent again, so it's always nice to see him get the love he deserves.

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