Fruitbat

In the comments here, an anonymous Yankee fan warns us not to "get too comfortable with the Rivera you saw those first two games in April."

First of all, it was the second and third games in April, but whatever. Can't expect these clowns to fact-check. Those early April meltdowns were fun -- I was there for one of them -- and who can forget his utter failure to nail down an ALCS sweep last October?

But the bigger question is how has Rivera done against Boston? Has he always been lights-out? ... ESPN offers splits for only 2004 and 2005, so for everything else, I used David Pinto's Day by Day Database.

2005       G   IP    H   R  ER  BB   K   ERA
Red Sox    5   4.1   6   6   2   4   8  4.15
Non-Sox   29  33.1  14   4   2   7  34  0.54
 
2004       G   IP    H   R  ER  BB   K   ERA
Red Sox   12  11    15   5   5   1   7  4.09
Non-Sox   62  68.2  50  12  12  19  59  1.57
 
2003       G   IP    H   R  ER  BB   K   ERA
Red Sox    9  10    16   3   3   3   7  2.70
Non-Sox   55  61.2  45  12  10   7  56  1.45
 
2002       G   IP    H   R  ER  BB   K   ERA
Red Sox    4   3.2   2   2   2   1   2  4.91
Non-Sox   41  42.1  33  14  12  10  39  2.55

Career against Red Sox

   G   IP    H   R  ER  BB   K  ERA
  61  67.2  64  27  22  22  68  2.93 (9-5, 29 sv)