MINNEAPOLIS – Long a postseason pariah for his October failures in pinstripes, Alex Rodriguez has morphed into something completely different – the dominant player of a playoff series, a genuine Yankee savior.
In a three-game series sweep in which the Yanks batted just .225 as a team and had a .288 on-base percentage, Rodriguez hit .455 (5-for-11) with two homers and six RBI. He hit two game-tying homers, including a solo shot in Game 3 Sunday night with one out in the seventh inning.
If they gave an award for division series MVP, A-Rod would have won easily. With five Yankee regulars batting below .200 for the series, Rodriguez’s offense was crucial.
“Things go a lot smoother when Alex hits,” said Johnny Damon, who was 1-for-12 (.083). “He got a lot of big hits and he picked a lot of guys up.”
“Without Alex, we’re probably not in this situation right now,” said Joe Girardi, standing in the visiting clubhouse as the Yankees celebrated with beer and champagne. “We’re probably still playing. He had a monster series, monster hits.”
In the seventh, ex-teammate Carl Pavano got ahead of Rodriguez 0-2, but Rodriguez worked the count full before launching a deep drive to right that carried an estimated 374 feet. It was the ninth postseason home run of his career.
“Pav did a fantastic job of just mixing it up,” Rodriguez said. “He had us, basically, dancing for six innings. … I grinded that one at-bat out, and laid off a couple good sliders, couple good splits, fouled off a fastball and then just got a pitch I could handle.”
Rodriguez has always hit well at the Metrodome – entering yesterday, he had 21 homers in 58 regular-season games there. In the clinching Game 4 of the 2004 division series – the last playoff series the Yanks had won before this one – he was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two stolen bases and scored the series-winning run in the top of the 11th inning, racing home on a wild pitch. Rodriguez hit .421 in that series, his last good one before this one. Too bad for A-Rod the Dome is now closed for baseball with the Twins moving to an outdoor park next year.
“He had a huge series and I think it shuts a lot of people up, which is nice to see,” said Nick Swisher. “It’s been so much fun to watch him and you see what kind of player he is.”
Rodriguez, who missed a month after hip surgery, seems like a different player than the one who entered the series in a postseason 0-for-19 funk with runners in scoring position. He’s talked all season about “being in a good place” and not trying too hard and it’s worked.
“Well, I think going back to spring training, I knew I couldn’t change all the 0-for-4’s and 0-for-5’s, and all the guys I left on base, I knew I couldn’t change that, so, you know, I am content right now, both on and off the field,” Rodriguez said. “And I also knew that I was 34, not 44, and I have an opportunity to do things right both on and off the field.”
“I think this means everything for him,” Mariano Rivera added. “He’s feeling great and he trusts himself. He’s having fun, having fun, having fun and that’s the most important thing. Before, he was trying so hard and you can’t have fun like that. Now, he’s just enjoying it.”
