Hal Steinbrenner made it crystal clear on Monday that he wants Alex Rodriguez to “act like a Yankee.’’
One day later that’s not going so well.
A-Rod’s sullied image took another tape-measure huge hit last night when ESPN reported that MLB will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Biogenesis investigation, including Rodriguez and Ryan Braun and that Tony Bosch, the Biogenesis’ founder and boss will cooperate with MLB’s investigation. Rodriguez and Braun could be suspended 100 games, according to the report.
That would take care of Rodriguez’s 2013 season.
All this makes Life with A-Rod even more “complicated.’’ That was the name association word game Brian Cashman used to describe Rodriguez during his Sunday interview with ESPN.
The Yankees insist they did not know this news was coming down the PED-pike; that Cashman and Steinbrenner were just responding to questions. Makes sense. Certainly, the best course of action regarding Rodriguez is to expect the worse and keep that in mind whenever answering Rodriguez questions.
Rodriguez will not go down with a fight, so this situation will linger. The Yankees are stuck with this mess until 2017 or if Rodriguez someday agrees to go away and that is highly unlikely.
On the field the Yankees did the best thing they could do last night, continuing the theme they have committed to all season: Movin’ On From A-Rod.
With Mark Teixeira again leading the home run way, the Yankees disposed of the Indians and ex-Met Scott Kazmir with a 4-3 victory at Yankee Stadium. One night after his third-inning grand slam from the left side, Teixeira blasted a third-inning towering three-run home run, this time from the right side.
The home run remains a key ingredient to the Yankees success. They still dig the long ball, make no mistake about that, and they need home runs to succeed.
Teixeira’s grand slam Monday night in the 7-4 win over the Indians was a most welcome sight for the Yankees. This is a different Yankees team this season but success is still based on the home run and Teixeira plays a vital role in that department, especially because Curtis Granderson (broken left pinkie) is back on the disabled list.
“You know I love the home runs,’’ Cashman said. “I love the walks and the home runs. Where are we ranked in offense right now? Remember all those Yankee fans crying about ‘All we do is hit home runs.’ Now they’re crying, ‘We don’t score any runs.’ ’’
“You hear about all kinds of statistics these days, all these percentages and everything else,’’ Teixeira said. “The fact is you have to score runs and the quickest way to score runs is hitting home runs. Every team that I’ve been on that has hit home runs has scored a lot of runs.
“Over the course of a long season if you have guys in the lineup who can consistently put the ball in the seats you’re not going to have long run droughts, you just are not going to.’’
Teixeira agrees with Cashman that complaining about “too many home runs’’ is ludicrous.
“There are plenty of teams that can get guys on base and slap singles around and try to steal bases and at the end of the game they have two or three runs — if things go well,’’ Teixeira said. “Especially against good pitching.’’
The Yankees are ranked 11th in runs scored with 234 — just four runs ahead of the lowly Astros. They are sixth in home runs with 66.
When a pitcher makes a bad pitch, Teixeira said: “a home run hitter makes him pay for it.’’
As far as this latest Rodriguez mess, Teixeira kept his distance.
“I had no idea this was coming out, until I learn more I have no comment,’’ he said.
Said Vernon Wells: “I don’t think it will be a distraction. From what I’ve gathered guys in this clubhouse are pretty good at dealing with distractions. We’ll continue moving on and marching forward.’’
Real Yankees do.