A-Rod Answers Critics With Hot Posteason Start
New York Yankee Third Baseman Trying to Get the Monkey Off His Back
Oct 10, 2009
It only took a few seconds after the New York Yankees clinched the American League East Division before the talking heads at ESPN were trying to put a negative spin on it. The Yankees had just won their 100th game of the season, and captured the first division title under once-embattled manager Joe Girardi, and all Karl Ravech wanted to talk about was the team’s payroll.
A few minutes later, it was time to call out A-Rod. After giving a humble, very human interview amidst spraying champagne in the team’s clubhouse, Peter Gammons observed that Alex looked much calmer and more focused this year. To some viewers, he appeared, well, a little more human, than he has in the past. But Ravech attacked him anyway, saying, essentially, that no matter what Alex had done to repair his image this year with his teammates and the fans, things would change if he came up short in October. The statement was ill-timed and it showed little class on Ravech’s part. It was also true.
Rodriguez Has Failed in Past Octobers
Rodriguez has not been much of a hitter in the postseason, at least not since his 2004 American League Division Series, his first postseason with the Yankees. Against the Minnesota Twins that year, Rodriguez hit .421. His first three games against the Red Sox were also pretty impressive. He went 7-19 with two homers and 5 RBI.
In the final 3 games of the series that reversed the curse, Rodriguez began his run of postseason futility. He went 1-12, a lone single amidst the greatest collapse (or comeback, depending upon your vantage point) in sports history. Rodriguez’s troubles continued during the next three Yankee postseasons. He’s just 7 for 44 – that's a .159 average–with one double and one RBI. The repeated failure did not endear Alex to the fans or the media, to say the least.
Rodriguez Appears to be Reverising His Own Curse in 2009
But perhaps this postseason Rodriguez is going to make Ravech, and his many other tormentors, eat their words. He’s certainly off to the right start. In Game 1 of the 2009 American League Division Series, Rodriguez delivered two big hits. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Yankees led 3-2 with two outs and Derek Jeter on second base. A base hit would give the team a little breathing room in a very close game. It was the very situation in which Alex had failed so many times in the past. This time he ripped a single to left, scoring Jeter. His two-out single in the bottom of the seventh (again scoring Jeter) put the game safely out of reach.
But it was in Game 2 where Alex really shined. In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees trailed 1-0. They hadn’t been able to do anything against Nick Blackburn, who just happened to be pitching the game of his life. Then Jeter doubled and Damon walked. Teixeira flew out. Rodriguez strolled to the plate. He poked a weak single down the third base side; weak, but effective. Jeter flew around third and stormed home: tie game. In his next at-bat, A-Rod did his best Tino Martinez imitation. Trailing 3-1, with Teixeira on first, Alex drilled a belt high fastball more than 400 feet into the Yankees bullpen. Tie game. 45,000 fans going crazy.
Two innings later, Teixeira hit a bullet over the left field wall; a line drive home run that opened the Bombers lead to 2 games to 0.
In Game 3, witht he Yankees down 1-0, Rodriguez drove a Carl Pavano pitch over the baggie in centerfield. It was the hit that got the Yankees rolling, and ultimately led the way to an NLDS-clinching 4-1 win for the Yankees.
If Alex keeps this up, it’s pretty hard to see the Yankees losing this October. If he keeps this up, he won’t ever need to worry about having to prove that he is a True Yankee, whatever that is supposed to mean.
By the way, after the Yankees ALDS win, a quick switch to ESPN would have revealed Ravech and Gammons, and some of the other Red Sox fans that run that station, talking about the Red Sox, who had just lost in embarrassing fashion to the Angels in the other ALDS.
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