SIGN OF THE TIMES: Alex Rodriguez’s Yankee Stadium return was met with a mixed reaction, with some fans holding “welcome back” signs and others referencing his recent suspension. (Anthony J Causi)
Once again, Alex Rodriguez was the center of attention last night, but ended up having virtually nothing to do with the Yankees’ performance.
A game that started off with a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd trying to figure out how to respond to the third baseman for the first time this year ended after a blown save by Mariano Rivera and a game-winning hit by Brett Gardner in a 4-3, 10-inning win over Detroit.
In between, Rodriguez was cheered, booed and then replaced at third by Jayson Nix in the ninth.
Afterwards, Rodriguez was nowhere to be found and let his teammates speak for him.
“Obviously, you’re going to have people that boo,” Gardner said. “I still don’t understand the people wearing a Yankees shirt, pulling against one of their own guys. Everybody’s got a right to like somebody or not like somebody, but still pull for the team, at least, right?”
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At this point, Rodriguez is practically an entity to himself.
The fans wrestled with their feelings toward the suspended third baseman.
Should they jeer the guy who is appealing a 211-game ban by Major League Baseball because of an alleged involvement in the Biogenesis scandal or root for the slugger they came to see?
He went hitless in four at-bats and didn’t have anything hit in his direction at third.
The crowd clearly had been curious to see what — if anything — the aging third baseman had left and Rodriguez gave them plenty of reason to knock him.
He struck out his first two times up before managing a fly ball to short right in the fifth. Rodriguez fanned again in the eighth, ending his night and he was not seen on the field during the postgame celebration as the Yankees snapped a four-game skid to avoid falling to .500 for the first time since April 13.
A week ago, while Rodriguez was still a one-man barnstormer visiting various towns up and down the eastern seaboard, he sat in Trenton, N.J., and admitted the obvious.
“There’s not a bigger compliment than being booed on the road and probably nothing worse than being booed at home,” Rodriguez said at the time.
He may have to get used to it.
“It was probably 50-50,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Maybe a little more cheers. It’s something he has to be able to put out of his mind and be a player for us.”
But if he struggles at the plate, the reaction doesn’t figure to improve.
“He’s been booed before,” Girardi said. “He knows what he has to do and I expect him to do it.”
“I thought it was great reaction,” Gardner said. “I know he felt the same way. I talked to him during the game about it. It’s good to have him back.”
And the center fielder sounded confident Rodriguez would survive the fans’ wrath.
“Listen, I don’t want to speak for him, but I think he’s been through so much in the last several years, I’m not sure what he’s affected by anymore,” Gardner said. “He’s got pretty thick skin and a lot of the success he’s had is because he’s able block out a lot of outside noise.”
Gardner created noise of his own, bailing out both Rodriguez and Rivera against the Tigers, who had won a dozen in a row.
Rivera blew a second straight save opportunity when Miguel Cabrera crushed a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game in the ninth. That came after Lyle Overbay was unable to catch a Cabrera popup by the Yankees dugout.
But in the bottom of the 10th, Nix and Curtis Granderson both reached to start the inning. They advanced on a wild pitch by Al Alburquerque as he fanned Overbay, leading to an intentional walk of Eduardo Nunez to load the bases with one out.
Chris Stewart struck out looking before Gardner ended it to make a winner of Shawn Kelley (4-1).