(NY Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
(
)
He’s got balls.
Shameless Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez was playing so poorly against the Detroit Tigers Saturday night that he was yanked from the lineup — but that didn’t stop him from trying to score.
After being replaced in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, the highest-paid Yankee openly flirted with a pair of pretty women two rows behind the dugout — even sending them a ball bearing a note asking for their phone numbers, a witness told The Post.
“I watched him flirt with two admittedly very cute young women nearby,’’ the witness said.
Instead of rooting on his teammates as they struggled to stay alive during the tense game at Yankee Stadium, A-Rod, 37, had a ball boy toss the young women a baseball inscribed with a message asking for their numbers.
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“Alex was holding a pen and wrote a note on a ball which was thrown at the women by a ball boy,’’ the witness explained.
“The girls, who had already caught two balls, seemed bemused at first and tried to hand the ball to another fan, but other fans noticed the note on it and yelled at them to read it.
“The note asked them to write their phone numbers on the ball and throw it back,’’ the witness said.
“One of the girls, with darker blond hair, wrote . . . on the ball and threw it back at A-Rod, who gave her a big smile.”
“They exchanged a few glances after that,’’ as A-Rod took a powder while a pinch-hitter took his place at the plate.
Raul Ibanez performed under pressure, tying the score in the bottom of the ninth.
In the 12th, team captain Derek Jeter broke his ankle — and A-Rod finally wised up, the witness said.
“The flirtation stopped once Derek Jeter got hurt,” the source said.
The Yanks wound up losing 6-4.
They also lost again to the Tigers 3-0 on Sunday.
Fans sitting behind the dugout at Saturday’s game said they were disgusted after witnessing A-Rod’s shenanigans, which were more befitting a sixth-grader than a serious ballplayer.
“I was absolutely stunned that even . . . A-Rod would not be focusing on such a critical game, supporting his teammates, and was instead more interested in adding another couple of phone numbers to what must be a very, very large collection,’’ one said.
A-Rod’s rep referred questions to a team spokesman, who didn’t get back to The Post last night.
Rodriguez is currently dating wrestler Torrie Wilson.
As Page Six revealed last year, Jeter also has used baseball memorabilia to win over the ladies.
After bedding a beauty, he’d send her home alone with gift baskets of autographed memorabilia.
He is dating model Hannah Davis, who was spotted in his family box Saturday.