A-Rod Lifts the Bombers, So Is He Finally a Yankee?

Today Alex Rodríguez bailed the Yankees out of losing their first series of the season in dramatic fashion. With the bases loaded and two outs, A-Rod smashed a homerun into the black in centerfield for a walk-off 10-7 victory. With all the recent drama surrounding him in training camp, and the boos coming from the Yankee Stadium crowd as early as his second at-bat of the season, the question now is: Will he finally stop sticking out like a sore thumb on the roster and get to enjoy being on the Yankees?

I was hoping the answer was "yes," but history isn't on my side. While browsing the Daily News website, I was reminded by this article by Mark Feinsand that last year, as Alex was deep in a slump in June he hit a walk-off dinger which bought him exactly one at-bat without boos. Hopefully his hot start this year (3 HR, 9 RBI through four games) coupled with him finally speaking frankly about his relationship with Jeter are enough to let him finally relax.

In other Yankee news, the rotation isn't looking too good. Carl Pavano (0-0) did just well enough for the Yanks to win the opener; Pettitte (0-0) lasted only 4+ innings, surrendering four runs (2 earned) in the 7-6 loss Thursday, Mussina (0-1) didn't even come out for the 5th inning as he got tagged for 6 runs, all earned, in a 6-4 loss on Friday, and Kei Igawa will probably be buying A-Rod dinner tonight, throwing 5 innings of 7-run baseball in an unimpressive Major League debut, coming away with a no-decision.

More of a concern to me than the struggles of the rotation is the strain it puts on the bullpen. In 36 defensive innings they've played, the relief corps has thrown more innings (18⅔) than the starters (17⅓). This wouldn't be such an issue to me if I had confidence in any of the starters to be able to pitch a complete game. The guys most likely to do it are either too old to pull it off (Pettitte and Mussina) or injured (Chien-Ming Wang). Plus, the Yankees head to Minnesota on Monday; the chances of going deep into late innings against the Pirahnas are very low.

Elsewhere in the AL East, Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-0) was on point in his Major League debut, allowing 6 hits and one run through 7 innings while striking out 10 for the win. Curt Schilling (0-1) showed signs of his age in the opener, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings for the loss. Josh Beckett (1-0) was solid vs. the Royals, hurling 5 innings of two-hit, one-run ball for the Red Sox first win of the season; however, he did allow 4 walks and threw only 46 of 94 pitches for strikes. As expected, Tim Wakefield (0-1) frustrated the Texas Rangers lineup with his knuckleball, giving up two runs (one earned) through 6 innings, but Robinson Tejeda (1-0) bested him by shutting down Boston through 7 innings, earning the Rangers their first victory. Tonight, the Sox test their project in Julián Tavárez (NR) against Kevin Millwood (0-1) and a struggling Texas lineup that's batting an embarrassing .149 and averaging one run per game in the first week of the season.

The Boston lineup stumbled out of the gate, batting a meager .227 through four games. The Sox join the San Francisco at the bottom of the heap in long balls with one apiece (Kevin Youkilis for BOS, Barry Bonds for SF).

Out West, Vladimir Guerrero is having batting practice with the opposing pitchers, hitting .500 (tied for 4th in MLB) with 3 HR (tied for 1st) and 9 RBI (tied for 1st).

In the National League, the Mets are living up to expectations early. The lineup is getting on base and scoring runs well, the starting staff has been lights out with the first four starters turning out gems, and the bullpen has been even stingier.

The Cincinnati Reds are riding on good outings early by their starting staff for a 4-1, with only Bronson Arroyo turning out a less than respectable outing.

The NL West is looking as disappointing as expected. Maybe this division should be demoted to the minors.

That's all for now; I'll try to have a baseball roundup once a week.

BruGz®..

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