Sports

Tigers’ Benoit says A-Rod doesn’t deserve boos

ARLINGTON, Texas — There is a new bandage on the left side of Joaquin Benoit’s face. The Tigers’ reliever may have to take it off again tonight in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Rangers at The Ballpark in Arlington, but said yesterday he was surprised he was forced to turn the other cheek by Joe Girardi and the Yankees.

He admitted that, at first, he was distracted by the ruling.

In the end, the set-up man got the last laugh when his Tigers knocked the Yankees out of the postseason and sent Yankee Stadium into stunned silence Thursday night with a 3-2 victory. Benoit got five critical outs after entering the game with one out in the seventh. Girardi had home plate umpire Ted Barrett make the Tigers training staff remove the bandage from Benoit’s face, complaining it was a distraction to Yankees batters.

“When I was pitching in the seventh, it was so loud you couldn’t hear anything,” Benoit told The Post yesterday. “When [Jose Valverde] was pitching, and he got two strikes against A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez, in the ninth], the Stadium was so silent. It was like nobody was at the field.”

The Tigers turned Yankee Stadium into the sounds of silence. Now the tired Tigers are looking to get a jump on the rested Rangers tonight in Game 1 of the ALCS and quiet the state of Texas.

“That’s how you judge fans and ballparks, they support you, yes, when you are winning, but when you’re losing, if they are really against you, that’s not good,” Benoit said. “I feel for A-Rod. In [Game 2] when I pitched in New York and A-Rod popped up, it was so bad that instead of cheering him on because he is their player, they were booing him. That really [stinks]. If you are going to be a fan, be a fan in the good days and the bad days.”

Noted his bullpen mate and former Yankee Phil Coke, “I never heard that place die like that.”

Said Benoit of the Band-Aid incident, “I don’t really see the distraction of a Band-Aid against 50,000 people screaming, but there is nothing you can do. I had a lot on my mind at the time and I was thinking that if it got worse, what would happen.

“They were trying to get in my head but there was nothing I could do about it.

“I knew it was going to be sore,” Benoit said of the ingrown hair on his cheek. “Right after the game I cleaned it out and had it taken care of by the trainers. I just didn’t want it to get worse. I just need to treat it and do the best I can, hopefully it will feel better.

“It was a small cut to get the ingrown hair out, it got infected. We’re doing the best we can to treat it.”

Benoit worked through the seventh and eighth. In the eighth he gave up a two-out single to Brett Gardner but retired Derek Jeter on a long fly to right.

Benoit said he would have been concerned if “it was more towards the line. When he hit it I knew it was high but I didn’t think he hit it that good to get it out.”

When asked about Jeffrey Maier, who once changed the fate of a Yankees playoff series on a Jeter home run, Benoit smiled through the pain and said, “I don’t think he was there.”

No mystique. No aura. No big hits. In the end the Yankees had to deal with the Tigers terrific bullpen and there was nowhere for their hitters to hide. Now it’s the Rangers’ turn to see if they can solve the late-inning puzzle of Benoit and Valverde.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com