MLB

As A-Rod goes, so do Yankees

The truth is the Yankees are lucky to have Alex Rodriguez. And so are the fans.

It’s easy to make him out to be the bad guy, the steroid cheater, the egotistical player, but sometimes it’s best to look at him through an opponent’s eyes to really understand what A-Rod brings to the Yankees’ party.

No player has a better plan when he steps into the batter’s box than Rodriguez.

That is just the start of his success.

BOX SCORE

A-ROD’S 600 HOME RUNS

A-ROD BY THE NUMBERS

PHOTOS: A-ROD HITS 600

PHOTOS: A-ROD’S MILESTONES

His 600th home run yesterday not only was a milestone that just seven players have reached — and we’re talking some of the biggest names in baseball — it also was a huge home run in a game the Yankees had to win. The Yankees could not have gone into a pivotal series with the Red Sox tomorrow as losers of four straight.

His monster two-run blast to center field in the first inning gave the Yankees the lift they needed in their 5-1 win over the Blue Jays that snapped their losing streak at three games. The Yankees have not lost four in a row all season. A-Rod, the No. 4 hitter in the lineup, is a huge reason for that success.

Consider this number: This season 37 of his 87 RBIs (44.8 percent) have either tied the game or put the Yankees ahead. Say what you want about A-Rod, but he has become a winner in New York, a winner the Yankees need to win No. 28. It’s that simple.

Cito Gaston, the Blue Jays manager, once was a teammate of Hank Aaron. He was there the day that Willie Mays hit his 600th home run. He’s won multiple World Series. Gaston knows what this is all about. He knows how to work with hitters. And he had words of wisdom for his Blue Jays hitters this series: Watch A-Rod. Watch how he executes his plan. Hitters have to have a plan.

“Six hundred, you can’t write it any other way, can you?” Gaston said of the magnitude of Rodriguez’s accomplishment. “That’s a lot of home runs. How many miles is that around the bases? That’s a lot of miles.

“If he stays healthy, he can get up to 700,” Gaston added. “I don’t know if he is going to pass [Barry] Bonds.”

Bonds owns 762 home runs. You can be sure that A-Rod will pass that number. His goal is to be No. 1. That’s part of his plan.

“I use him a lot to our guys when I give them the talk about sitting on pitches and having an idea when you walk up there,” Gaston said. “He has an idea of what he’s doing when he walks up there, and anybody who doesn’t believe it, he’ll take a fastball right down the middle and go sit down because he’s not sitting on that pitch.”

The secret to A-Rod’s success is that he sits on a pitch then makes the most of it.

“Once in a while he’ll get jammed,” Gaston noted, “but the thing I like about him is that he has a plan. Pitchers have plans on trying to get hitters out. Hitters should have plans, too.”

CC Sabathia said that no player he has ever met has a better understanding of the game than Rodriguez. Added Gaston, “I don’t think anybody can say you have the wrong plan, not when you have 600 home runs. That’s a pretty darn good plan.”

Rodriguez said he has found a niche in the Yankees’ clubhouse to go along with his game plan at the plate. He had a good conversation with Derek Jeter on Tuesday about having a solid plan and that was to “try to get a base hit, maybe even try to bunt. I think my plan, for the first time, was just try to get a base hit,” A-Rod said.

He got the big hit. A-Rod carried the Yankees last October and he will have to carry them again this time around. He remains their Big Dog.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com