MINNEAPOLIS — Alex Rodriguez often looks like he is staring at something 1,000 yards away. Yesterday, he gazed far past a hitless game in his return from the disabled list against the Twins at Target Field.
“I was happy with the way I felt,” said Rodriguez, who hadn’t played since July 7 and underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery four days later. “Today, I felt great.”
Rodriguez, who spent the previous three days working out and not playing in minor league rehab games, appeared rusty at the plate, where he went 0-for-5 in the Yankees’ 3-0 win.
Rodriguez didn’t strike out and was hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“His timing was a little off,” manager Joe Girardi said. “The timing will come.”
Rodriguez, who started at third base, made a very good play to rob speedster Ben Revere of a bunt single in the sixth inning. After charging and making a bare-handed grab, he fired an off-balance strike to first.
“That was a terrific play that tells me the knee is pretty good,” said Girardi, who likely will use Rodriguez as the designated hitter occasionally to rest the knee.
“That’s a play I am going to have to make, so it was good to make,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez grounded to shortstop to strand a runner in the first, grounded to short to end the third, popped up to first to end the fifth, flied to center for the final out of the seventh and to right field for the third out in the ninth.
“The speed of the game you can’t simulate,” he said.
Rodriguez was part of a footnote with Jim Thome. It was the first time since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron played against each other on July 17, 1973 that two players with at least 600 homers played in the same game.
