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MOOSIC, Pa. — Alex Rodriguez made it through his first rehab game with Triple-A Scranton / Wilkes-Barre last night, moving him one step closer to rejoining the Yankees.
Rodriguez, recovering from right knee surgery on July 11, went 1-for-3 with a single and played six innings at third base in a 2-0 loss to the Durham Bulls.
“It’s not fun being down in Tampa rehabbing,” Rodriguez said afterward. “You want to be up with your team and helping them win games. Thank God they’ve playing so well and keeping the fort down, and hopefully I can come in and give them the shot in the arm and take it to the house the rest of the year.”
The plan is for Rodriguez to play another rehab game here tonight, and then rejoin the Yankees in Minnesota tomorrow. Though he said he felt fine physically, Rodriguez wouldn’t fully commit to being ready to go after tonight’s game.
“I was a little tentative, a little hesitant,” he said. “I think that’s something that comes with a little bit more time, a little bit more repetition. . . . I had the same experience coming out of my hip in ’09, and those last few hurdles are more mental than physical.
“We’ve got to take one day at a time. Today was another good day. . . . Hopefully we have another one tomorrow and then we’ll see what happens after that.”
Rodriguez looked as if he hadn’t missed a beat at the plate. He lined a single down the right field line in his first at-bat, and then drove the ball deep to left-center field in his second, getting robbed of a double, thanks to a nice play by Durham center fielder Brandon Guyer.
“Well, I think it’s far away from being locked in, but I felt pretty good,” Rodriguez said. “I had a really good session in batting practice, and I really saw the ball well tonight.”
He did, however, look a little rusty at third base in his first game there since the surgery. He cleanly fielded the only ball hit to him at third, a grounder by Matt Carson to end the fourth inning, but he also missed two foul pop-ups down the left-field line.
The first came with one out in the top of the fourth, when Rodriguez tried to make a difficult over the shoulder catch with his back to home plate on a ball hit by Stephen Vogt. The second came with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, when Rodriguez overran another pop-up — this one closer to the stands — and missed the ball when he tried to reach back and make the catch.
“Nothing happened,” Rodriguez said, laughing. “I just botched them both. That’s one thing you can’t [simulate] when you’re down in Tampa rehabbing, [and] it’s always good to give the fans a little entertainment value.”
Once Rodriguez does return to the Yankees lineup, manager Joe Girardi will have to do some shuffling to get Rodriguez back into his customary cleanup spot. But Girardi told reporters before last night’s game in Kansas City that he won’t worry about that until Rodriguez is back with the Yankees.
“When the decision has to be made, we will look at everyone and see where they are comfortable and we will talk to the guys before,” Girardi said.
One possible change could be moving Brett Gardner to the bottom of the lineup against all pitchers. Gardner has been hitting leadoff against righties and ninth against lefties, where he hit last night against Royals southpaw Danny Duffy.
When Rodriguez was injured in early July, he was hitting behind Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira.
Rodriguez also was joined in the 600 home-run club Monday night by Jim Thome, after the Twins designated hitter hit a pair of home runs in Minnesota’s 9-6 win over the Tigers.
“Jim is one of the easiest players of our generation to root for,” Rodriguez said in a statement yesterday. “It’s hard to overshadow 600 home runs, because it is a tremendous accomplishment and an exclamation point on a career bound for the Hall of Fame.
“But to me, the way he has treated the game — and the people in and around it — will always be the first thing I think of when I think of Jim Thome. In so many ways, he is a legend of our game.”
— Additional reporting
by George King