When Joe Girardi caught Mariano Rivera in the late 1990s, seeing the closer summoned in the eighth inning to save a game wasn’t so out of the ordinary.
The manager knows he has to be more careful with Rivera now, which is why yesterday was just the second time Girardi called for Rivera in that situation.
And after some scary moments in both the eighth and the ninth, the Yankees held on to beat the A’s, 7-5 at The Stadium.
“It’s not something you want to do a lot of,” Girardi said of asking Rivera to get a four-out save, his first since Aug. 21, 2010, against Seattle, when he also gave up a run. “But when you need it, he’s there for you.”
After getting out of David Robertson’s mess in the eighth, when he retired Cliff Pennington on a groundout with the tying run on second base, Rivera had to escape trouble of his own an inning later.
He got Eric Sogard to start the ninth, but then surrendered four straight singles — the last of which by Josh Willingham drove in Jemile Weeks, left the bases loaded and moved the tying run to second.
David DeJesus followed by ripping a liner that Mark Teixeira snagged, and he beat pinch-runner Ryan Sweeney back to the bag for the game-ending double play.
“That’s part of the game,” said Rivera, who earned his 25th save, extending his record of consecutive 25-save seasons to 15. “The ground balls found holes and the line drive is a double play. You figure it out.”
Rivera downplayed both the record and the toughness of the inning. He was hit harder than he would have liked throughout the ninth, but he didn’t think the extra bit of work played a factor.
“I don’t notice it,” Rivera said. “I don’t think about it. I just go about it like normal. I get one out and then I have to get the next three outs.”
But he also struggled the only other time Girardi asked him to get a four-out save this year, when he blew a lead against Baltimore on April 24.
“It’s not the kind of inning you want,” Girardi said. “But whatever it takes to get a win and close it out. It’s gonna happen. You’re gonna get in those kind of innings.”
And when he does, Girardi knows no one is more suited to escaping them than Rivera.
“We know that he’s not gonna panic in that situation and just make pitches,” Girardi said.
“I’m here to do a job, regardless [of whether it’s] four outs, three outs or one out, it doesn’t matter what it is,” Rivera said. “I have to be ready for that and I am.”
Rivera was in position to get the save because the Yankees got two RBIs each from Eduardo Nunez, Curtis Granderson — who homered in the fifth — and Andruw Jones. And Bartolo Colon — solid over seven innings — won for the first time since beating the Mets on July 2.
The Yankees seemed in control until Robertson struggled in the eighth, when the skies opened briefly, and he surrendered three doubles.
“To not finish the inning and force Mo to come in early was a weight on my shoulders,” said Robertson, who had allowed just two runs in his previous 26 innings before giving up a pair in two-thirds of an inning yesterday. “I was pretty irritated with myself.”
But Rivera saved Robertson — like he has the Yankees so many times before.
dan.martin@nypost.com
