It all made perfect baseball sense. Of course it did.
Indians manager Manny Acta absolutely had every reason in the world to intentionally walk Mark Teixeira to load the bases with one out in the seventh inning yesterday. Well, every reason but one: YOU NEVER INTENTIONALLY WALK MARK TEIXEIRA IN FRONT OF ALEX RODRIGUEZ.
You have a better chance of plugging that BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with Silly String than actually succeeding with that strategy.
In their two years as Yankees teammates, Teixeira has been intentionally walked in front of Rodriguez on nine occasions. The only time Rodriguez was credited with an out in his batting line was last June 12. And all that happened that time was the most memorable moment for both New York teams in the 2009 regular season: Luis Castillo dropped a Rodriguez popup, two runs scored and the Yanks walked off to beat the Mets.
In the other times, Rodriguez is 5-for-5 with two walks, a sacrifice fly and 18 RBIs. And . . . wait for it . . . Rodriguez has now hit a grand slam each of the last three times Teixeira received an intentional pass.
One came on his final at-bat of the 2009 regular season when nothing less than a grand slam off of Tampa Bay’s Andy Sonnastine would have enabled Rodriguez to drive in 100 runs.
One came on May 14, when for some bizarre reason Twins manager Ron Gardenhire allowed Matt Guerrier to pitch, though Rodriguez already had three homers in six at-bats against the righty.
And the one came yesterday when — unlike Gardenhire — Acta had sound reasoning on his side. Except, of course, Rodriguez made it all wrong with a seventh-inning hammer that broke open a 2-1 game in what became an 11-2 final.
“I would appreciate if we keep those numbers to ourselves and not share them with any other managers,” Rodriguez said.
Don’t fret, Alex. When I presented the numbers to Acta, he said, “If we come back tomorrow and have that situation, I would do the same exact thing because it was the right thing to do.”
Yes, again, Acta had baseball logic on his side.
The Yanks had men on first and second with one out. Lefty Rafael Perez fell behind Teixeira 2-0 before a critical wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position and made the count 3-0.
Now if Acta were to pitch to Teixeira, he would have had to bring the infield in and a single that squirted through would have made it 4-1. Also, Teixeira had hit a three-run homer in the seventh the previous day off of another lefty, Tony Sipp.
“Teixeira, no matter what the numbers on the board say (low batting average) is a threat,” Curtis Granderson said.
So Acta said his decision was “not difficult.” He ordered ball four, an intentional walk that loaded the bases. And he summoned righty Chris Perez. Again, perfect baseball sense to look for the inning-ending double play.
Righties were hitting .146 with no homers in 48 at-bats this year against Chris Perez. And in his two shutout innings Saturday during a 13-11 Cleveland win, Chris Perez had induced Rodriguez to ground out to short. But, as Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said, “When you load the bases there, you are now in a situation in which you have to throw a strike to one of the best hitters of all time.”
Chris Perez magnified his problems, falling behind 3-1. Acta is big on statistical analysis and in spring training had told his pitchers that the numbers show “that when you get to 3-1, you turn every hitter into the Barry Bonds of 2003. Imagine what you do with Alex Rodriguez.”
What you do is allow Rodriguez to hit his 20th career grand slam, which broke a tie with Eddie Murray and left him behind only Lou Gehrig (23) and Manny Ramirez (21). And you also make sure word spreads that logic means nothing in this situation. The only rule that matters is:
DON’T INTENTIONALLY WALK MARK TEIXEIRA WITH A-ROD ON DECK.