BALTIMORE — Alex Rodriguez uttered the two scariest words in his vast universe last night: Dr. Philippon.
“I don’t want to predict or guess,” the Yankee third baseman said when quizzed on the right groin problem that forced him out of last night’s 4-3 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards after one inning.
“I am going to see [team physician] Dr. [Chris] Ahmad, and I am sure we will talk to Dr. Philippon and get a better idea.”
Marc Philippon is the surgeon who repaired a torn labrum in Rodriguez’s right hip in March 2009 and oversaw the rehab process throughout last season. Everything went so well that Philippon said further surgery after the World Series was not required.
So, could this groin problem that surfaced Sunday in Toronto be related?
“I am not a doctor,” said Rodriguez, who will likely be stuffed into the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube today.
Rodriguez said he felt cramping prior to batting practice and then again a dozen minutes before the game but believed it would be well enough for him to play. But when Rodriguez couldn’t move on an Adam Jones RBI ground single in the first, it was clear something was wrong.
By the time the Yankees batted in the second inning, the light-hitting Ramiro Pena was batting cleanup.
And of course, Pena came up in the sixth inning after Mark Teixeira led off with a double and the score tied, 3-3. Manager Joe Girardi had Pena bunt Teixeira to third, but Jake Arrieta, who made his big-league debut, walked Robinson Cano intentionally, got the ice-cold Jorge Posada to fly to left, walked Curtis Granderson intentionally after Cano went to second on Posada’s fly and then fanned Marcus Thames to leave the bases full.
“The hip is fine,” Rodriguez predicted. “But I was very disappointed to come out of the game.”
Two runs by the Orioles in the first, when A.J. Burnett (6-4) hit two batters and gave up two hits, put the Yankees in a hole they recovered from by scoring once in the second and twice in the third.
Scott Moore drove his first homer of the season, a shot over the right-center field wall, in the fifth to tie the score, 3-3.
Burnett absorbed the loss when Luke Scott’s fly ball to right carried farther than Nick Swisher, Burnett and Scott believed and grazed Swisher’s glove at the wall and went for a triple.
“He threw the bat down,” Swisher said of Scott. “I was right at the wall and I thought, ‘I got this.’ The next thing you know …”
The ball was rolling toward the first base foul line and Scott was pulling into third. With the infield in, Jones rifled a double to right-center to score Scott and give the O’s a 4-3 lead.
“A.J. battled — he didn’t have command of his fastball and had to go with his curveball,” Girardi said of Burnett, who is 11-3 against the Orioles after giving up four runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Losing to the Orioles is bad enough. If the loss cost the Yankees their cleanup hitter in a lineup that is currently getting very little from Posada and Francisco Cervelli, the Yankees are in a big bind.
In one breath, Rodriguez said he is fine. In the next he isn’t sure.
“It’s frustrating because there is no pain,” Rodriguez said. “I am not worried, but we have to figure it out. I don’t want to predict.”