ARLINGTON – Necessity isn’t the only mother of invention.
When Alex Rodriguez was dropped from fourth to fifth in the Yankees’ lineup Friday night against the Rangers, it wasn’t planned by Joe Torre.
After bench coach Lee Mazzilli told Torre that Gary Sheffield was able to play, Torre instructed Mazzilli to put Sheffield in the No. 3 spot and move everybody down a notch. Sheffield hadn’t started since injuring his left hand/wrist last Saturday.
“I wasn’t really paying attention to the fact that it moved Alex out of the cleanup hole,” Torre said.
“I know it sounds made up, but that’s the truth. If I was aware of it, I certainly would have presented it to Alex before I did it.” Thirty minutes prior to the hold-your-breath, 8-7 victory at Ameriquest Field, Torre saw the card and talked to Rodriguez, who had one hit in his previous 17 at-bats.
“Alex is fine. So much is made of the lineup, but no matter where you put him, he came up with the bases loaded a couple of times,” Torre said. “You move out of the four hole but it doesn’t keep the situation from presenting itself for him.” Rodriguez, who started the night batting .242 in the clutch, traded an out for a run in the first when his bases-loaded grounder to short drove in Johnny Damon with the game’s first run. After fanning in the third, Rodriguez ripped a two-run single to center off Vicente Padilla in the Yankees’ five-run fourth. Rodriguez doubled with the bases empty in the sixth and walked in the eighth.
“It was beautiful,” Rodriguez said of hitting fifth three days after admitting in Boston he didn’t want to vacate the fourth spot, which housed Jason Giambi on Friday. “I loved it. I am comfortable sandwiched between the two lefties [Giambi and Hideki Matsui]. And a change of scenery doesn’t hurt.” Because the shuffled lineup produced eight runs, Torre said it was staying that way last night against righty Kameron Loe.
In addition to dropping Rodriguez a spot and hitting him where his numbers are his best in twoplus Yankees seasons (.351, 16 HRs, 47 RBIs), the shift also avoids Giambi and Matsui hitting backtoback in the fifth and sixth slots, which makes it easier for opposing managers to deal with in lateinning situations. Instead of picking what lefty to use their lefty reliever against, the manager gets a two-for-one bargain with them together.
Historically, left-handers haven’t given the duo problems, but this year they are struggling against southpaws. Giambi was batting .217 (5-for-23) and Matsui was at .200 (8-for-40) heading into last night.
“It wasn’t a big deal to me because I never made a lot out of where people hit in the lineup as long as they were in the three, four, five, six role, but obviously I can understand it’s a story,” said Torre, who isn’t considered a large tinkerer with the lineup but is willing to change, like he did the past two years when he moved Rodriguez into the No. 2 spot.
The Yankees needed all three of Rodriguez’s RBIs, as well the two runs Derek Jeter drove in, and the solo runs driven in by Jorge Posada, Damon and Giambi, because the bullpen came very close to flushing the 8-1 lead Mike Mussina turned over to it in the eighth.
“The lesson we learned tonight is that when you have a lead you have to keep expanding,” Rodriguez said.
And that necessity isn’t the only mother of invention.
