BOSTON — John Lackey didn’t go after Alex Rodriguez yesterday, but he did get the better of him.
The Red Sox right-hander has been an outspoken critic of Rodriguez being allowed to play for the Yankees during the appeal of his 211-game suspension, telling the Boston Globe on Thursday, “I’ve got a problem with it. You bet I do.”
Not enough to drill him, though.
In yesterday’s 6-1 win over the Yankees, Lackey walked Rodriguez in the second inning before striking him out in the fourth and getting him to ground out to second on a diving play by Dustin Pedroia in the sixth.
The fans at Fenway Park, who booed Rodriguez lustily throughout the game, appreciated Lackey’s performance enough to give him a standing ovation when he was removed in the seventh.
No doubt some of those plaudits were due to the harsh words directed at Rodriguez.
“How is he still playing?” Lackey told the paper. “He obviously did something and he’s playing. I’m not sure that’s right. … It’s pretty evident he’s been doing stuff for a lot of years I’ve been facing him.”
Lackey, once at the center of the fried chicken and beer controversy in the Red Sox clubhouse, added Rodriguez is discussed there now.
“Sure, we talk about it,” Lackey said. “But talking to the media about it is a little bit different. People have strong feelings.”
Clearly, Lackey is in that group.
“He took me deep the first time I faced him as a rookie, and he admitted to doing stuff back then,” Lackey said of his encounter with Rodriguez in 2002, during a period when the slugger has previously admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs. “There are a lot of things I want back from him.”
In 11 games since returning to the Yankees, Rodriguez is been 12-for-43 (.279) with four runs, two doubles, a homer, four RBIs, five walks and 10 strikeouts. He has not been hit by a pitch since his second game back.
