Yankees 6
Rangers 1
ARLINGTON – As Alex Rodriguez rounded first base and prepared to finish a home-run trot, he raised his right arm and punched the Texas night.
Was A-Rod celebrating shutting up the sold-out Ameriquest Field crowd that has booed him since he left for The Bronx?
“No, that’s because I stunk for two weeks,” A-Rod explained.
To say A-Rod is out of an extended funk would be wrong. But he is on the path to recovery, and his three-run homer in the sixth inning broke open a close game and helped carry the Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Rangers in front of 48,634.
“I am letting the ball travel, getting my separation and attacking the baseball,” A-Rod said of his sixth homer and first since April 19. A-Rod had been homerless in 50 at-bats.
Elevated from fifth to fourth in the Yankee lineup when Gary Sheffield was scratched, Alex Rodriguez made good on a vow delivered earlier in the week about his spot in the batting order.
“I love hitting fourth,” A-Rod said Tuesday. “But I will hit no matter where I hit.”
Friday night, A-Rod was dropped to fifth and drove in three runs.
Still, A-Rod is in a 4-for-25 (.160) funk. Yet, in the past seven games he has driven in 11 runs.
Three of them came on one swing against Kameron Loe when A-Rod drove a 0-1 pitch into the left-center field seats.
“The one thing I can’t try to do is hit home runs,” said A-Rod, who has 435 homers and passed Juan Gonzalez into 35th place on the all-time list. “It’s the last thing on my mind. That’s probably why it happened.”
Shawn Chacon delivered his signature outing, which meant he pitched in and out of trouble and won. In 61/3 innings, Chacon allowed one run, five hits and walked four. However, none of the free passes scored.
“I would like to make it as easy as Moose [Mike Mussina],” said Chacon, who is 4-1, and has won three straight since rejoining the rotation on April 22. “But I am not Moose.”
Chacon gave up a run in the first that negated Jason Giambi’s two-out homer to center.
In the fourth, Chacon surrendered a leadoff double to Phil Nevin, recorded two outs and then walked Brad Wilkerson, who was 7-for-14 (.500) against him, and then walked Rod Barajas to load the bases for No. 9 hitter Mark DeRosa.
“I didn’t want to walk Barajas but I did,” said Chacon, who induced DeRosa to ground out and leave three stranded.
“Sometimes it looks like the jams are self-induced,” Yankee manager Joe Torre said of Chacon’s problems. “When you are 3-1, it takes the mystery out of hitting. The one thing about it is that he isn’t panicking. Sometimes he bites off more than he can chew.”
“He’s got [guts)],” Johnny Damon said of Chacon.
Damon helped Chacon in the first when he went to the warning track in center to grab Kevin Mench’s drive for the final out with two runners on.
It was Damon’s legs that ignited the five-run sixth that snapped a 1-1 tie. Damon legged out an infield hit, stole second on a pitchout and went to third when nobody covered second. Derek Jeter’s single scored Damon. Loe walked Giambi and then watched A-Rod unload.
Loe, who sometimes brings his pet boa constrictor to the clubhouse, held the Yankees to one run and two hits through five innings thanks to a sinker that stayed down and sterling defensive plays by first baseman Mark Teixeira and second baseman Mark DeRosa.
But then came the sixth, highlighted by A-Rod’s blast.
“He looks a lot better,” Torre said of A-Rod.
Friday night A-Rod hit fifth for the first time this year and drove in three runs.
“He is certainly swinging it better. You can [hit] him anywhere. We all know what he is capable of. He is not feeling for the ball, he is going at the ball.”
