PHILADELPHIA — Was that Joe Blanton or Joe Blatant who drilled Alex Rodriguez in the back last night?
There is the old Don Drysdale philosophy — why waste four pitches when one will do? — and Blanton may have been guilty of that thinking in the first inning with Johnny Damon at third base and one out.
Blanton plunked Rodriguez with the first pitch, bringing a little controversy to Citizens Bank Park just as things were getting warmed up in the Yankees’ 7-4 victory over the Phillies in Game 4 of the World Series.
Rodriguez stopped on his way to first base and glared at Blanton. Plate umpire Mike Everitt interceded and Rodriguez walked to first. Everitt next huddled with crew chief Gerry Davis and a warning was issued to both benches.
That brought Joe Girardi to the field for an explanation. After all, why should CC Sabathia be punished before he even took the mound.
You could make the argument Rodriguez would have been better off putting his head down and taking his medicine. If he doesn’t glare at Blanton there likely is no warning issued and Sabathia would have been free to even the score or at least deliver a little chin music.
“I don’t feel like it put me in a difficult spot,” Sabathia said. “They told me when I went out there that a warning had been issued, but I had to pitch to both sides of the plate and had no reservations about doing that at any time.”
Rodriguez, who got hit twice on Saturday, had no comment on Blanton’s pitch. But he said getting drilled twice in Game 3 wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
“That one time I got hit, in my first at-bat [against Cole Hamels], it kind of woke me up a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “It just reminded me, ‘Hey, this is the World Series. Let’s get it going a little bit.’ So it worked out.”