Beginning Friday, the Yankees meet those same Rays for a three-game set at Yankee Stadium with hope of a much different outcome.
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Rodriguez was 0-for-4 and loudly jeered throughout the game, which turned in the Yankees’ favor on a crucial fielding mistake that allowed them to overcome a 2-1 deficit and take two out of three in the series.
Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez held the Yankees to three hits in seven innings, including an Austin Romine home run. In his career, Rodriguez had hit 29 balls out of Fenway, but for the first time he trekked inside the wall.
Entering the 2009 postseason, Rodriguez was criticized for not performing in the postseason while wearing the pinstripes and the numbers do not lie. In 2005, 2006, and 2007 divisional series A-Rod hit.159 with only one home run and one RBI over 13 games.
Since July 9, the Red Sox lead all of major league baseball in innings pitched by their starters (171 innings).
But trailing 2-1 into the eighth, the Yanks rallied against side-winding righty reliever Brad Ziegler, capped by Jacoby Ellsbury’s go-ahead, two-run double – a liner that appeared to be misjudged by rookie left fielder Andrew Benintendi.
The two Sox runs yesterday were the product of a middle-of-the-order that had been cold.
The setting was the Yankees were tied 4-4 in the 9th with two outs and Johnny Damon had a huge 9 pitch at-bat that ended with Damon getting a single.
Patrick Corbin (4-12) lasted only 1 2/3 innings, allowing eight runs and nine hits, including both of Ramirez’s homers.
Three of the first four hitters singled: Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner, loading the bases. After a few minutes, Ramirez was able to walk it off and stayed in the game to finish the top of the eighth inning.
Yankees: RHP Nathan Eovaldi had an MRI on his pitching elbow and was evaluated by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad. “Until we have that second opinion, we’re not going to release anything”, Girardi said.
Red Sox: OF Mookie Betts was out of the starting lineup after leaving Wednesday night’s game early with tightness in his right calf.
With first base open, Chase Headley was intentionally walked and A-Rod strolled up to one last venomous reception from Fenway fans who cast the controversial slugger as a villain since 2004, his first season in the game’s most inspired rivalry. “He told me what the plan was and I said, ‘Well, any chance I could play third base on Friday?’ He just said no”. Still, Rodriguez insisted that he’s going into tonight’s game with a belief that “this is it”, his final turn at-bat. He hasn’t played the field this season.
“We thought about it but he hasn’t done any work”, Girardi said before Thursday night’s game. “We are still in the business of trying to win games”. “We’re still in this and I just felt that the situation hasn’t presented itself”.
Alex Rodriguez, batting cleanup in his final road start with the Yankees at Fenway Park, was vigorously booed as he stepped to the plate for the first time in the second inning. “My mom and the girls (his daughters) are on their way home to NY, and they’ll get a chance to watch me”. “We added one of the game’s greatest players at a discounted price because there were considerable offsets of salary, and we got a lot of production from him for quite some time”.
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Rodriguez was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, but his dribbler to the mound in his final at-bat drove in a run to cap a three-run Yankees eighth inning.
