Please Joe, No mo' Mo

	Mariano Rivera has been hit hard in his past two outings, including a blown save against the Red Sox on Friday night. AP
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The Yankees can say over and over again that the games against Boston were just three early games. But Torre showed us all how important he thought these games were when he summoned Mariano Rivera for the eighth inning Friday night.

At that moment, Torre's desperation was showing like almost never before.

The last thing Torre wanted to do was go back on his word to Rivera that he was henceforth a one-inning pitcher, a word so important Torre volunteered it about the first day of spring. Of course, Rivera didn't believe the word for a second. He chuckled when he heard about the pledge.

As it turns out, Torre's pledge was indeed laughable. Though Rivera technically only pitched one inning because he blew the save and the game, Torre contradicted his word before Rivera even saved one game this season. Or as Torre playfully put it, "I lied."

As it turns out, too, the Yankees may be fortunate in the long run that Rivera doesn't have his stuff together and didn't have to pitch both innings. There's no sense taking a chance adding Rivera to the list of fallen Yankees in what has to be the most painful (literally, painful, that is) start of any Yankees season.

Good news for hitters at Shea?

One competition where the Yankees are beating the Mets is in the arena of ballpark building. The new Yankee Stadium appears to be slightly ahead of Citifield. And if anyone thinks the progress of the stadium builders doesn't matter, it may to the Mets. Consider that Citifield is being built in a spot beyond the outfield at Shea, and there's a theory going around that by late summer the new field will be built up enough to change the wind patterns and allow balls to carry out to left-center field. For years, balls have carried better to right-center, where the scoreboard cuts the wind, in the notorious pitchers' park.

As if the Mets could use any hitting help.

Around the Majors

• Andruw Jones turns 30 today. That's only a reminder of how many years the free-agent-to-be has left to excel. Jones would love to remain with the Braves if all things were equal, but hardly anyone believes the Braves will spend "market value" on Jones. Market value should be somewhere in the range of Alfonso Soriano's $136 million deal. And as one NL executive said, "[Jones] is a much better player. He's great defensively. And he plays to win."

• The long-held belief in New York was that Soriano was playing for a contract. As one New York-based exec said, "And he got one." Might've been nice if they'd clued the Cubs in about this.

• Jose Reyes is the most fun player to be around. Tom Glavine said Reyes is just like Andruw Jones was as a kid, giggling for hours before gametime. Yes, it's a good life. It's just nice to see someone realize how good it is.

• While the Braves were in New York, Glavine teased Jones for being so honest and revealing that he would prefer to stay in a warm climate rather than talk up his love for New York, as many free agents do to juice up the market. According to Glavine, he joked to his former teammate that "you've got to keep the New York teams in it." But Glavine also knows that Jones' honesty was admirable.

• The Astros would love it if Brad Lidge retakes his closer's job, but he didn't help his case when he couldn't retire the one batter he faced Sunday. Meanwhile, the Astros fantasize about a closer who could combine the talent of Chad Qualls and the moxie of Dan Wheeler, who's doing the job for now.

• It's a good year to be a Hudson. Orlando Hudson is second in the NL in batting (.373) and Tim Hudson is second in ERA (0.62).

• Good to see J.J. Hardy, whose 2006 season was ruined by injury, get on a tear. Consider yourself a verifiable "seamhead" if you knew that Hardy recently had four home runs in a three-game span?

• Brett Myers might wind up as Phillies closer soon. This has to be a surprise to the team, which, as one competitor pointed out, gave Myers "starter money" ($25.75 million over three years) when it recently signed him to an extension.