Inevitable.
A Yankees win felt inevitable every time Mariano Rivera took the mound for almost two decades. In retrospect, we were spoiled. Few teams had a reliable closer, let alone the greatest modern day closer of all-time. Since his retirement, we’ve seen just how rare he was in terms of consistent dominance, watching even highly paid closers eventually completely lose the ability to finish games. Rivera was dominant to his very last pitch.
It certainly didn’t start that way. Rivera made his major league debut on May 23, 1995 as a starting pitcher against the (then) California Angels.