"The fifth pitch of the at-bat was a cutter, precisely the kind of ball that has delivered Mariano Rivera from pedestrian starter to immortal closer in 15 short years, exactly the same pitch that has broken the hearts of thousands of hitters across the seasons.

Jason Bay swung at that pitch. It wasn't pretty.

"I looked like a million guys before me have looked," Bay said. "The way he's made me look plenty, too."

So it was 3-and-2 now to Bay, bases empty, nobody out, a full count, the Yankees up 2-1. The Mets fans who remained at Citi Field sat in dutiful silence and the Yankees fans rose in devoted splendor. Rivera hasn't just saved 580 games during his majestic career, he has made so many of them look as routine as blowing bubbles and tying sneakers. Bing, bang, boom. That's a Rivera save.

Carlos Beltran had been the bing: a strikeout in which Rivera made the Mets' freshly-minted All-Star look overmatched. Bang had been Daniel Murphy, a meek first-pitch groundout back to Rivera himself. Now Rivera searched for boom, threw another cutter, this one at Bay's knees and homing in on the black, outside edge of the plate.

Bay didn't swing -- probably knew he couldn't swing -- and tossed the bat, and hoped that as he dashed to first base he wouldn't hear Bob Davidson, the home-plate umpire, offer a different opinion. He didn't. Bay was on first. Funny thing: For a year and a half, the Mets have been waiting for Bay to coax his bat out of mothballs, to resemble, even if only temporarily, the player to whom they're paying $66 million.

And his first real impact, in his 153rd game as a Met, started by doing the simplest task of all: nothing.

"I thought it was a ball," Bay said.

You never can identify a turning point when it happens, of course. The Mets have seven games on the coast the next seven days, and if they limp into the All-Star break 1-6 or 2-5, we won't even remember what happened late yesterday afternoon, won't be able to summon on command the two hits that followed Bay's walk -- capped by Ronnie Paulino's game-tying single."