BOSTON — On the day Alex Rodriguez’s legal team essentially declared war on the Yankees organization, A-Rod and his baseball team went down meekly in a game it had to win against the Red Sox.
Yes, the road is a little bumpier for the Yankees in many ways.
A Lyle Overbay throwing error in the fourth-inning keyed a three-run rally for the Red Sox as Boston went on to a 6-1 victory over the Yankees at Fenway Park. The Yankees were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
The Red Sox and Yankees have split the first two games of the series, a series the Yankees needed to sweep to get back into the AL East race. The loss dropped the Yankees 8 1/2 games back of the first-place Red Sox.
The day began with Rodriguez’s lawyer dropping a bombshell, saying the Yankees essentially tried to hasten the end of his client’s career by playing him when he was injured, according to a report in The New York Times.
The report said the Yankees hid from Rodriguez the MRI results that showed a torn labrum in his hip.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina even brought George Steinbrenner into the fight, saying the Boss would be horrified by how the Yankees treated A-Rod.
The Boss would be horrified by where the Yankees are in the standings.
The best the Yankees can do now is win two of three against the Red Sox. CC Sabathia goes tonight against Ryan Dempster.
When Rodriguez was asked if he believed the Yankees ran him out there during the playoffs last year, knowing he was hurt, he said: “I don’t even want to think about what happened last year. I want to try to focus on this year.’’
Manager Joe Girardi said: “I don’t ever want to ruin anybody’s career, that would break my heart.’’
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The game began to unravel for the Yankees, who won 10-3 Friday night, when Overbay fielded Stephen Drew’s one-out ground ball with runners on first and third in the fourth and threw wildly to second base. Instead of an inning-ending double play, the Yankees allowed David Ortiz, who had led off the inning against Hiroki Kuroda with a laser ground-rule double to right, to score.
The Red Sox scored twice more in the inning to take a 3-0 lead as Will Middlebrooks and Jacoby Ellsbury both had two-out, run-scoring singles.
Kuroda has been the Yankees ace, but did not make it out of the sixth inning, allowing five runs, three earned, and 11 hits.
The Yankees could do nothing against John Lackey, who ripped into Rodriguez a few days earlier, saying he had a problem with the suspended steroid-stained slugger being able to play during the appeal of his suspension.
Rodriguez came into the game hitting .300, but was held hitless over three at-bats. Before the game A-Rod again said he should not have been playing last year with the hip injury, something he told reporters on Friday. When asked to elaborate on the situation, A-Rod said, “You will be hearing more about that shortly.’’
A little later his lawyer’s accusations came to light.
Rodriguez’s version of the Bronx Zoo will only get wilder tonight when the Yankees play the finale of the series against the Red Sox on national TV.
This is becoming A-Rod against MLB, A-Rod against the Yankees organization, and A-Rod against the world.
Meanwhile, the Yankees are trying to fight their way back into the race.
It will be fascinating to see the response Rodriguez gets Tuesday when the Yankees play a doubleheader against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.
When Rodriguez was asked what Sunday’s story will be, he smiled and said: “All right guys, enjoy your Saturday night.’’
The bumpy road that Rodriguez alluded to on Friday in his State of A-Rod address is indeed bumpier today. The Yankees are far off the pace in the AL East and have to jump over four teams in the race for the second wild card.
The Boss would be horrified, indeed.