Archive for Alex Rodriguez
One of last night’s starters left the game with the following line: 2.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Ask anyone who didn’t see the game, from either New York or Boston, and they’d say it was Chamberlain. No brainer. But it was Jon Lester who surrendered the runs. A liner off the knee ended his night early, though he likely would have exited soon thereafter anyway. He’d thrown 78 pitches and allowed 11 baserunners. It was one of his worst starts of the season, and it set the stage for a Yankee victory.
As with Burnett’s and Pettitte’s last starts, the Yankees were looking for some improvement from Joba this time around. They got it. He lasted six innings, breezing through the first three by retiring the Red Sox in order. He struggled a bit in the second half of his appearance, but nothing big. He left a pitch up that any hitter with power should have driven, and left one out over the plate for David Ortiz. Those were his only blemishes on the evening.
Beyond the stellar first three innings, Joba showed something in the fifth. He got himself into a jam by allowing a single and a double, and then worked his way out of it without allowing a run-scoring grounder or sac fly. The only reason it wouldn’t be considered impressive is because the first two outs came at the expense of Jason Varitek and Alex Gonzalez, who went a combined 0 for 7 on the night with four strikeouts. I still think it’s impressive. There are just so many ways for a team to score with a runner on third and none out, even with crappy hitters at the plate.
The rest of the game belonged to the offense. As if their 14 hits and nine walks weren’t enough, the Yanks also swiped seven bases — A-Rod three times and Jeter twice. They came to bat 21 times with runners in scoring position and collected hits seven times. Only three of the 14 hits were for extra bases, but the Yanks made them count. A-Rod’s homer put the Yanks up 3-0 early, Robinson Cano’s double set them up later in the inning, and A-Rod’s double in the sixth gave them all the breathing room they’d need. The rest of the night, singles and walks worked just fine.
The Yankees got everything they could have wished for in this game. They beat Boston handily, and Joba pitched well. The team had a plan going in, to run on Jason Varitek, and they executed. Everything seemed to fall into place, and that’s always welcome against the Red Sox.
Question: should Girardi run out the A or the C lineup tomorrow? You don’t want to sit back after you just battered the Sox, but on the other hand you want to rest your regulars as much as possible. Jorge’s probably sitting or DHing because of the day game after the night game (and I bet a shiny penny that Cervelli starts behind the plate), so Joe could choose to start Hinske and others rather than his main guys, hoping that CC holds down the Sox and his bench guys can muster a few off Dice-K. It’s a late-afternoon affair, 4:00, and you’ll have to deal with Tim McCarver on the FOX broadcast. So glad I’m going to this one.
For half the game, everything went well. The Yankees put up four runs and Chad Gaudin was cruising. Even two outs into the bottom of the fifth, the Yanks looked poised to win their first game in Anaheim this season. But from that point on almost nothing went the Yankees’ way. Gaudin couldn’t finish the fifth, Aceves almost blew the lead in the sixth, and a pair of errors cost the Yankees the lead in the eighth. But a short rally in the ninth put them back on top again, and Mariano Rivera closed the door.
The game started off as a few have recently: the Yanks put a few men on in the first, but failed to score. Ervin Santana kept dropping breaking balls and off-speed pitches, and the Yanks just couldn’t get a feel for him. It was more of the same in the second. Robinson Cano doubled to lead off, but Santana struck out two Yanks to strand him. But then came the third.
Santana, while getting swings and misses on breaking balls out of the zone, was nonetheless missing the zone. A-Rod took advantage of this, working a 3-0 count following a Teixeira single. Then came the BP fastball, and there it went, way out to dead center. It gave the Yanks their first lead of the series, and Posada would add to that with a two-run homer two batters later. Hideki Matsui struck in the fifth, and the Yanks offense had put them on top 5-0.
On the other side of the ball, Chad Gaudin had it going. It took him only nine pitches to retire the Angels in the first, and while the second was a bit longer he still allowed just one hit. A hit, a walk, and six outs later, the Yanks had a decent lead heading into the second half of the game. And that’s when Gaudin broke down.
It wasn’t the first time Gaudin lost it before the end of the fifth. Girardi pulled him with two outs in the fifth in Oakland, Gaudin’s first start in pinstripes, with the bases loaded. On that night he allowed no runs, and Al Aceves came on to finish the inning without damage. The latter was true again this time. Aceves came in and got Torii Hunter swinging to end the frame, but not before Gaudin allowed a homer, a double, a walk, and a single, putting the Angels on the board for the first time.
Aceves then had his own set of troubles in the sixth. Four of the first five hitters in the inning singled, allowing one run to score and loading the bases with one out. Maicer Izturis popped out, but Aceves couldn’t sneak one past the patient Abreu. Bobby didn’t even take the bat off his shoulder, and the Yanks lead was cut to one. Only a diving stop by and perfect throw to first from Alex Rodriguez saved the lead.
That would be the end of the Yanks’ pitching problems for the evening, though Phil Hughes did escape a mini-jam in the seventh, and pitched pretty well in eighth. It was the defense that failed the team. Howie Kendrick smoked an outside pitch, but right at Robinson Cano. The ball just got away from him, a play that unfolded so fast that the replay couldn’t really capture it. That was the first error.
On an 0-1 count, Kendrick took off for second. Jorge pulled the throw a bit and it went into center field, moving Kendrick to third with none out. There seemed little chance the Yanks could escape without blowing the lead. Hughes got Figgins to pop out weakly, but Izturis punched one into right to tie the game. Just three innings after the Yankees were flying high, they found themselves back at the drawing board.
Thankfully, the drawing board is often a productive place for the Yanks. Brett Gardner started off the ninth with a single, and then he was off to the races. While he was safe by the call, replay showed that he strayed a bit off the bag with the tag on him. Oh well. After the bottom of the eighth, the Yanks needed a break. Jeter ended up walking, and then Johnny Damon bunted the runners over.
Not wanting to face Mark Teixeira with runners on second and third, Mike Scioscia walked him to get to A-Rod. That didn’t work, as Alex lined one into center, just deep enough to score Gardner. That put the game in Mo’s hands, and while Juan Rivera’s at bat was tense, it ended with a great release: a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play. One pitch later and the Yanks were celebrating a playoff berth, though they had locked that up a bit earlier when Texas lost to Oakland.
The Yankees got swept at Fenway in the first half and came back to go two out of three in the second half. They got swept in Anaheim before the All-Star Break, and now have a chance to go two out of three with a win today. A.J. Burnett starts against Scott Kazmir. It’s an afternoon affair, an odd 3:30 start.
There’s really nothing going on right now, and we don’t have a game for another almost another nine hours, so here’s a bit to chew on:
Since A-Rod’s two-day rest in Florida: .324/.426/.544 with 10 doubles, 16 homers, and a triple in 324 plate appearances.
That’s also when they started resting him once a week. Could the cumulative effects of said rest have an impact on Alex’s late-season run? After the Yankees beat the A’s on August 19, A-Rod had a .254 batting average. That average, exactly a month later, is .287. A-Rod has racked up 103 plate appearances in the past month, and has hit .404/.476/.607.
This is pretty damn good for someone coming off hip surgery in March. Sure, Chase Utley is having an even better season than last year after hip surgery, but he had his back in November, giving him a three-month head start.
It’s not quite an A-Rod appreciation thread, but damn, it’s tough not to appreciate what he’s done this year.
Early on, this was the kind of game that made you want to pull your hair out. The Yanks squandered an opportunity in the first inning. Then CC Sabathia came back out for the next inning and surrendered the small lead. The game got further away with an inexcusable play by Damon. The Yanks offense wouldn’t lay sleeping for long, though. They came on late and put the team out in front, avoiding the sweep at the hands of the Orioles.
After a quick, nine-pitch first inning, Sabathia ran into trouble in the second. Nolan Reimold, thorn in the Yanks side all series, led things off with a dribbler to third. He’s a quick kid, and A-Rod really had no chance. CC left one up and over the plate to Ty Wigginton, and he deposited it in shallow right. A four-pitch walk to Matt Wieters loaded the bases with none out.
CC turned it around and held the Orioles to two runs in that inning, both scoring on outs. The problems resurfaced in the third. CC retired the first two hitters, but the second, Nick Markakis, sent one out to the wall at the deepest part of the park. Reimold hit it similarly, but instead of right to center he split Melky and Damon for a double off the wall. After a walk he’d finish off the side without allowing a run to score, but CC still didn’t look sharp.
Then came the fourth, an inning to forget. Justin Turner reached on a slow grounder to third, frustrating as hell because a ball hit that weakly should be an out. But it wasn’t. Chad Moeller followed that with another weak grounder to third, and if it was anyone by Chad Moeller running, it likely would have been another infield hit.
So there was a runner on second with one out. I knew that. You knew that. Eight Yankees in the field knew that. Unfortunately, Jef Fiorentino hit it to the one guy who didn’t. Johnny Damon had a bit of trouble with the fly ball in the sun, and breathed a sigh of relief when it landed in his glove. He turned around to toss it to a fan, not realizing that CC still had an out to record. That bought Turner enough time to round third and give the Orioles a 3-1 lead. It was certainly one of the most embarrassing moments of the season.
That seemingly sparked Sabathia. He got Brian Roberts to pop out on the next pitch, and didn’t allow a hit the rest of the way. He walked two, but erased one on a first-pitch double play. That left him with a line of 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. The game didn’t go far in improving Sabathia’s until-now disgusting K/BB ratio.
For the offense, the early game was defined by a lack of hits with runners in scoring position. A-Rod came through with a double to score Jeter in the first, but the next two batters couldn’t plate the runners on second and third. They squandered Derek Jeter’s leadoff double in the third, mustering only a walk off Jeremy Guthrie.
In the fourth that changed, as the Yanks loaded up the bases with three straight singles, capped by a fourth by Melky Cabrera, plating two runs and tying the game. But the Yanks couldn’t plate another run in that inning, even after Johnny Damon walked to load the bases. The frame ended on an Alex Rodriguez strikeout looking. The pitch was clearly outside, but Marty Foster called it a strike anyway.
That led to a curious situation. After the Yankees took the field, apparently someone had a closer look at it. Alex said something and got tossed. Then Girardi blew up and got himself tossed. I’ll leave the umpire rant for another day. Yeah, the pitch was close, but it wasn’t a strike. If the ball doesn’t catch the corner, it should not be called a strike, and I don’t care if the ump is “consistently” calling them out there.
Matsui broke the RISP woes in the sixth, singling with the bases loaded and plating two runs. That would be all the Yanks would need, but they didn’t let it end there. In the bottom of the eight they poured it on, decimating the Baltimore bullpen and continuing their tradition of putting up enormous numbers in the final three frames. Matsui picked up a three run homer, which iced the victory. The homer didn’t kill the rally, though, and the Yanks put up five more runs and loaded up the bases before the O’s bullpen finally got out of it.
Instead of the scheduled off-day tomorrow, the Yanks will host Anaheim in a makeup of a rainout from earlier this year. The Yanks had won the first two games of that series, losing the third with Sabathia on the hill. Joba Chamberlain will go, and strangely I think he was the scheduled starter for the regularly scheduled game (but I could be wrong). The Yanks magic number is now down to an A-Rodian 13. It could get down to 12, depending on the Sox-Rays game this evening.
From the non-news on a slow Saturday department, MLB will not punish Alex Rodriguez after completing it’s investigation into whether he used performance enhancing drugs longer than he acknowledged. Had he been punished in any way, I assume the union would have flipped their lid and come to A-Rod’s aid.
Meanwhile, what’s up with David Ortiz? It’s been exactly five weeks since his press conference and 44 days since he got outed as cheat, are we still waiting for him to “gather information?” Why does he escape the witch hunt?
For the second time in two days (and three games), we were treated to my favorite brand of game: the pitcher’s duel. From David Price, we might have been able to expect it. He’s had his struggles, but is a promising pitcher who has started to come around lately. From Chad Gaudin, the hope was to get five serviceable innings. He provided that and a bit more, and the Yanks took advantage.
It’s sometimes tough to write much about pitcher’s duels. There were definite turning points of this game, but I’d like to take this one hockey style: three stars. I think they’re pretty clear in this case.
Third Star: Alex Rodriguez
Alex was in the right place at the right time in three instances last night, and he took advantage in each. In the top of the first, Carl Crawford skied a pitch to left center, which was just out of Johnny Damon’s reach. The speedy Crawford took advantage of the ball’s hang time and trotted into third with ease. The Rays had a chance to stake Price to an early lead, and with Longoria and Zobrist due up, they had a good chance to do so.
Longoria hit a sharp grounder which A-Rod fielded cleanly. Crawford was already a good deal off the bag, and A-Rod looked him down before throwing to first. But, judging that he was too far away from the bag, A-Rod did what they teach you in Little League: run right at him and make the runner commit. A-Rod moved toward him, and then iced the play by faking a throw, which tied up Crawford just long enough. A-Rod chased him until he was almost home, then flipped to Posada. This was good strategy by Crawford, since he can outrun Jorge. But Jorge chased diligently, flipping to Jerry Hairston for the putout.
In the top of the sixth, A-Rod came to the plate with runners on first and second with two outs. The Yanks had a 1-0 lead, but insurance runs are always welcome. Price tried to come inside with a 2-2 fastball, but A-Rod jumped on it, smacking it to left. Johnny Damon scored easily, and that put the Yanks up by two. That run came in handy the next inning, when Evan Longoria homered to lead off and cut the lead to one. It would come even more handily when Jason Bartlett homered to tie it.
Finally, Alex made a nice play on a Dioner Navarro grounder in the seventh. With runners on first and second and one out, Brian Bruney got Navarro to hit one on the ground toward third. A-Rod move to his right and was leaning while getting to the ball. He almost certainly could have thrown out the slow Navarro, but instead used his momentum to sprint to third ahead of Ben Zobrist. It wasn’t as impressive a play as the other two, but it saved the Yanks from a situation where a Willy Aybar single could have put the Rays ahead.
Second Star: Chad Gaudin
After Gaudin’s last two starts, it was tough to expect a lot. But Gaudin stepped up and pitched very well through six innings. He had used just 64 pitches to get through those six innings, and allowed just four hits and walked one. If Girardi had pulled the plug at that point, I doubt anyone would have cared (save for those who think anything Girardi does is moronic; there will always be those types). But with his pitch count so low, Girardi decided to push his luck.
Gaudin fell apart in the seventh, allowing a leadoff homer followed by a single and a walk, putting the tying run in scoring position with none out. That would be it for him, but even with the less than stellar performance in the seventh, Gaudin left with a respectable line: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. He deserved the W in this one. Thankfully, that stat means nothing in the grand scheme of things (as in, pitcher wins).
First Star: Nick Swisher
Had this game ended 2-1, I was leaning towards Swisher as third star. His homer in the first was pretty key, considering how well Price was pitching. But A-Rod had those three nice plays, and it’s hard to downplay the start by Gaudin. But then Phil Hughes allowed a leadoff homer to Jason Bartlett, tying the score. The Yanks were looking for another walk-off at that point, and Swisher delivered with his second bomb of the night.
Entering last night’s game, Swisher had 24 homers, 21 of which were on the road. In other words, 2/5 of Swisher’s home run total at Yankee Stadium came in last night’s game. Given that, he was the most unlikely hero. Maybe this breaks his curse of not being able to hit bombs at home. If the guy had hit half as many homers at home as he has on the road, he’d have over 30 bombs right now. There are four guys in the AL tied for third with 31 homers, and two tied for seventh with 30, just for some context.
The win puts the Yanks magic number down to a Munsonian 15. It also puts them at a .750 win percentage since the All-Star Break (hat tip Rebecca). It’s a pretty wild ride. I’m just glad we can all enjoy it together. Yanks go for the sweep tomorrow. Joba Chamberlain tries, once again, to redeem himself. Behemoth Jeff Niemann goes for the Rays.
Photo credit: David Pokress
Once again, CC was great. He powered through seven innings, allowing just three hits. His only real mistake was a low fastball that caught a bit of the plate, and even then few hitters other than Evan Longoria would have deposited it in the right field seats. Another hit was a grounder that found a hole, and the final was the result of Dioner Navarro sticking out his bat head and dumping one into shallow right.
He did walk four, including Jason Bartlett twice, but none of those came back to bite him. It did hurt his K/BB ratio, though his 10 strikeouts offset some of that. Carl Crawford, Gabe Kapler, and Fernando Perez were his most frequent victims, going down twice each. Wily Aybar, Evan Longoria, and Dioner Navarro managed to avoid the 10 K machine.
Matt Garza pitched as well if not better than CC, turning this one into a bona fide pitcher’s duel. He also went seven innings, allowing five hits and one walkd but no earned runs, thanks to the first-inning error. Strangely, even though he walked just one his strikes to balls ratio wasn’t very good at all — 67 strikes to 53 balls. In any case, he got the job done.
The Yanks got two breaks which led to their first run. First, Jason Bartlett booted a Mark Teixeira grounder, which put him on first base with two outs. The other fortuity was Alex Rodriguez working the count full off Matt Garza. That allowed Teixeira to get a running start, which allowed him to score on A-Rod’s absolute rope over Crawford’s head.
Once Garza was out of the game, the Yankees struck. Nick Swisher led off the eighth by drawing a walk, and Mark Teixeira followed that with a single to right. Rob Thompson noticed Gabe Kapler bobble the ball in right, and waved Swisher on to third. That caused a poor throw, allowing Tex to mosey into second. The aggressiveness paid off, and the Yanks were set up.
Smartly, the Rays walked Alex Rodriguez, who was 3 for 3 to that point, to load the bases. They’d rather take their chances with Robinson Cano and his anemic results with runners in scoring position. Still, Cano is not hitting .000 in those situations, so he comes through some times. This was one of them. He skied a ball to center, allowing the pinch-running Jerry Hairston to score and give the Yankees the lead.
Joe Maddon used three pitchers to record the three outs in the eighth, but they allowed three runs along the way. They all go to Cormier in the box score, but Chad Bradford did give up a hit to allow an additional runner to score. It was a team effort, and it was the difference in the game.
The Yanks bullpen, on the other hand, slammed the door. Phil Hughes got off to a shaky start by walking Carl Crawford, but got a break when he decided to make a run for it on the first pitch. The Yanks pitched out, and thanks to an accurate throw and quick tag they put Crawford back into the dugout. Hughes finished off the inning, and Mo made his return with two strikeouts in the ninth.
That takes care of Game 1 for the day. With Mo and Hughes unavailable for the nightcap, the Yanks would do well to knock around Andy Sonnanstine. A.J. Burnett will try to get back on track and bring the Yanks magic number down to 16. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.
Tuesday night I mentioned that the Yankes were hitting .293/.380/.512 from the seventh through ninth innings entering the game. They picked up some hits in that period and upped their numbers to .295/.381/.516. We’ll see them even higher when Baseball Reference updates tomorrow morning. The Yanks went 9 for 17 with three walks and a double in the final three frames, icing the series sweep as they crushed the Orioles, 10-2.
The game was made possible by CC Sabathia, who picked up his 16th win of the season by pitching seven innings of one-run ball. Things started out shaky, as he allowed five hits in the first two innings. This included a bunt base hit and a check-swing bloop in the first, which Nick Markakis took advantage of by slapping a sac fly to left. The Orioles would gather three hits and load the bases with one out in the second, but CC struck out the final two hitters of the inning to escape unscathed.
Only a walk and a single marred his record the rest of the way, and the latter was erased by a 4-3 double play. Nine strikeouts helped keep runners off base. There were questions about CC’s strikeout rate earlier in the season, but no longer. Since the All-Star break he’s struck out 72 in 71 innings. His 6:1 K/BB ratio in the second half currently stands above his insane 5.12 ratio from last year in Milwaukee. This is even more impressive, because he doesn’t have the pitcher to face this year.
Despite CC’s best efforts, the Yanks still found themselves tied at one heading into the seventh inning. That simply would not do. Johnny Damon opened the frame by drawing a walk on a 3-2 count. He’d try to swipe a bag, but Nick Swisher had designs on a pitch breaking down and away from him. It didn’t appear to be a hit and run situation, especially with Swisher up, but it acted as one. Swisher blooped the pitch, and it landed in the exact right place. That set the Yanks up with second and third with none out.
Up came A-Rod, and he delivered exactly what the Yankees needed, a line single to center. That allowed by Damon and Swisher to score, and the Yanks to take a 3-1 lead. Earlier this season, something like this would have called for a sarcastic remark about A-Rod’s lack of clutch ability, but it’s not even necessary at this point. His early struggles affected his overall batting average, but from mid-June on A-Rod has been a force in every way.
Just how insane has A-Rod been since Brian Cashman visited the team in Atlanta? He was hitting .310/.426/.545 since then, and added to that with a 3 for 5 performance last night. There are plenty of reasons the Yankees are the best team in baseball. A-Rod is but one of them, but he’s certainly one of the bigger contributors.
The only downside to the game was Brian Bruney. Girardi gave him the ball to hold a 3-1 lead in the eighth, but he quickly gave back a run. He fell behind Cesar Izturis before retiring him, but he wouldn’t make it back from Nolan Reimold. The rookie home run leader took Bruney deep, pulling the O’s to within a run and forcing the hard throwing righty from the game. Phil Coke and Phil Hughes would split the final two outs, maintaining the lead.
That would all become moot with the Yanks insane ninth, when they walked and singled their way to seven runs, icing the game and the sweep. Derek Jeter, a walk and a single, and Johnny Damon, two singles, reached base twice in the inning. Phil Hughes got some quality work in, striking out the side in the ninth.
The bad news: It appears Mo is suffering from a sore groin and could miss a few days. The good news: the Yankees not only have a capable temp in Phil Hughes, but also have a 7.5 game lead in the East thanks to a Red Sox loss. That puts their magic number, as you can see to your right, at Donnie Baseball with 29 games left to play (30 for the Sox).
After a flight to Toronto, the Yanks will trot out Chad Gaudin tomorrow night in place of Sergio Mitre. Ricky Romero will go for the Jays. Like most games this season, I’ll be eagerly awaiting this one.
When word got out in March that Alex Rodriguez had a torn labrum in his right hip, it was just another pile-on moment in a forgettable offseason for the beleaguered star. Rumor had it that he could miss most of the 2009 season as he rehabbed from surgery, and of course all the “he’ll never be the same” talk got started. Then came the news that an alternative, hybrid procedure could be performed to minimize the recovery time and get the Yanks’ cleanup hitter back in the lineup sooner rather than later.
This hybrid procedure came with the caveat that Alex would eventually have to undergo the more extensive surgery this coming offseason, and everybody was pretty much fine with that because Alex would be back sooner. They were also watching Chase Utley OPS over 1.000 early in the season after he had the same procedure last winter. As it turns out, A-Rod might not need that second surgery after all. To quote Bryan Hoch’s report:
“I don’t want to jinx us, but there is a very good chance we can use conservative treatment,” Dr. Marc Philippon told the New York Post. “We will take our time and look at all the variables, but I am very optimistic and happy.”
. . .
Rodriguez, who has benefited from regularly scheduled days off this season, told The Post on Monday that it was “80 percent no; 20 percent yes” that he’d need offseason surgery.
Obviously, avoiding surgery is the preferable path. You don’t just cut into a world class athlete, especially a major joint of a super expensive athlete, unless you really have to. Yeah, it stinks that he needs more rest now than he did before, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He’s been hitting like his old self for over two months now (.310-.423-.548 since the end of June), and his defense – which has certainly declined post-hip injury – is tolerable. If the options going forward are a) have the second surgery and hope it heals well, and if not who knows what, or b) not have the second surgery and give him some extra rest every week or two, I’d take the latter every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
After all that we’ve witnessed and all that he’s been through in his five plus years in pinstripes, it’s almost hard to believe that something like this could actually be going A-Rod’s way. I’m certain Dr. Phillippon and the team will do whatever is in the best interest of Alex Rodriguez now and his career going forward, and if that doesn’t require another surgery, then fantastic.
We have an update on Jorge Posada. The Yankee catcher left the game in the top of the 8th when a foul ball hit his glove hand, and Yankee fans everywhere held their collective breath. Reports from the clubhouse are cautiously optimistic. Posada aggravated a ring finger injury from a few weeks ago, according to Yankee skipper Joe Girardi. X-Rays were negative, and he is day-to-day. Posada was scheduled to take tomorrow off as the Yanks play a day game after a night game. We’ll see how he’s feeling this weekend, but with the Yanks enjoying a six-game lead, I would expect Posada to miss a few games as he heals.
Meanwhile, while Joe Girardi originally said that A-Rod would have an x-ray on his foot, subsequent reports indicated that he would not go for the x-ray but is suffering from a bruised right foot. A-Rod apparently hurt his foot when he fouled a ball off it during the 7th inning. He played the 8th inning, and Girardi said he pulled A-Rod due to the score. Girardi does not expect A-Rod to miss time but repeatedly noted how “worried [he] was about Jorgie.” We’ll report more as we know more.
