Signs of Fall are everywhere. The temperature has dipped, leaves are beginning to change colors and Alex Rodriguez looks tighter than Britney Spears’ pants.
The Yankee third baseman went 0-for-4 last night, making him 3-for-29 in his last eight games. No one can knock the MVP-caliber season Rodriguez is having, but as he’s learned in his first three years in The Bronx, his season ultimately will be measured by what he does during the Yankees’ pennant chase and playoff run.
Fortunately for Rodriguez, the Yankees have not needed his offense. Last night’s 2-1 victory over the Orioles was their 12th win in 14 games. They have been winning in spite of the hole in the middle of their lineup wearing No. 13.
Rodriguez left the clubhouse without speaking to reporters.
He struck out in second inning against Brian Burres and again in the eighth against Chad Bradford. That ran his strikeout total to 15 since his last home run on Sept. 9 in Kansas City.
On one of the strangest plays of the night, Rodriguez appeared to have a mental slip. In the fifth inning, he was at the plate with Doug Mientkiewicz at third and Bobby Abreu at first and two out.
Burres unleashed a wild pitch that sailed past catcher Ramon Hernandez and reached the backstop. Inexplicably, Rodriguez stayed in the right-handed batter’s box as Mientkiewicz broke for home. Foreseeing a collision, plate umpire Mike Reilly grabbed Rodriguez by the arm and pulled him out of the way.
“There was a chance to be a play at the plate so I wanted him to move,” Reilly said. “He was standing there. I grabbed his arm and said, ‘Alex, I’ve got to see it.’ ”
Mientkiewicz said he didn’t see Rodriguez standing there because he was running so hard.
“It would have been a double-negative,” Mientkiewicz said. “I would have cleaned him out and gotten released tomorrow.”
Later in the at-bat, Rodriguez had his hardest-hit ball of the night, a long fly to left.
The Yankee Stadium crowd still has not turned on A-Rod, but you get the feeling that if he looks this bad in the playoffs the “MVP” chants will transform back into the boos he heard last season.
The next month may be the most important month in Rodriguez’s career. His stay in pinstripes has been shadowed by what he’s done in October. This year there is the added factor of him possibly opting out of his contract and leaving New York.