There’s really no issue for Alex Rodriguez when it comes to the Yankees being in last place or sitting there with a 20-24 mark.
“I’m not concerned about our record. I’m concerned about tonight’s game,” Rodriguez said before tonight’s game against the Orioles.
“I think we are headed in the right direction and getting healthy.”
If we’re talking about the right direction, perhaps the direction the Yankees are pointing to is near third base. Hitting cleanup tonight, the reigning AL MVP has been cast as A-God and a savior, thanks to two things: how poorly the Yankees have played, and how tremendous a player he is.
The Yankees barely hit lately, they went 6-11 in the 17 games Rodriguez was on the disabled list, and they’re in last place in the AL East. In fact, they’re further out of first place than all but one team in the American League.
Sunday, Joe Girardi said, “It is not about the 44 [games] anymore. It is about the next 118.”
Rodriguez seems to be thinking the same way. He also seems to think that neither the Red Sox nor anyone else in the AL East is a threat to easily capture the division.
“No one’s running away with this thing,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if anyone’s counting us out. I hope they are.”
Rodriguez has been out since April 28 with a strained right quad, and he admitted to being excited and ready to go.
He was fresh off some rehab games in Tampa, Fla., where his totals were eight hits in 25 at-bats, with two homers. That’s ready enough.
“He can only be himself,” Girardi said. “I told him, don’t try to do too much.”
That’s one of the worries with Rodriguez: how much pressure he’ll put on himself to rescue his team. Even Girardi seemed to know that Rodriguez was being seen as a tonic.
“If we’re 30-14, you wouldn’t have that conversation [about not trying to do too much],” the manager said.
Rodriguez said, “There’s always a danger, especially because we need wins. There’s a lot of urgency in this team right now. But I remind myself that I’ve played in many games where I’ve gone 0-for-4 and we’ve won and I’ve gone in many games where I’ve gone 4-for-4 and we’ve lost.”
Because the injury deals with his legs, one issue to track is Rodriguez’s running and aggression on the bases. Will he go for a double on a ball in the gap, or try to score from second on a single, or go first to third?
Girardi told him to be smart on the basepaths, but Rodriguez said it’s tough to straddle the line between gung-ho and gung-no.
“I don’t think going kamikaze on the bases is really the answer, but play aggressive with some intelligence,” he said. “And that’s hard for me sometimes.”
While he was out, Rodriguez said it was tougher to watch Yankees games on TV than to watch other games. It sounded like he felt guilty when he’d turn on the tube and see the Bombers.
“I found that it’s easier to watch other games than my own, especially when you feel like you have your brothers out there and you’re not there to help them,” he said. “I’m just glad to be back in the lineup tonight.”
Additional reporting by George King
