TORONTO – So does one hit for a guy who batted near .200 for almost five months lay the foundation for a hot streak in the clutch?
Not likely, but don’t tell that to Alex Rodriguez, a career .313 hitter with runners in scoring position coming into this season.
After starting Thursday night’s action hitting a putrid .200 (23-for-115) in the clutch and going hitless in his first two at-bats with runners in scoring position, A-Rod smoked a two-run single off Jason Frasor in the ninth that carried the Yankees to a 7-4 win over the Blue Jays at SkyDome.
Naturally, A-Rod looked at the bullet to left that stopped an 0-for-13 slump with runners in scoring position as a point to start building on.
“These guys have been carrying me but my time is coming,” A-Rod predicted. “There is no question I can build on this. I will build on it.”
Positive by nature, A-Rod preferred to concentrate on his single (he should have had a double, but he reacted too giddily about finally getting a big hit) instead of the first two at-bats in the clutch.
Yet, does one hit against a pitcher who threw 11 straight fastballs to Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield and A-Rod mean the Yankees third baseman is out of a five-month funk?
That remains to be seen, but certainly the cloud hovering above A-Rod’s head was cleared with the single that scored Jeter from third and Sheffield from second to break a 4-4 tie.
“It was a sigh of relief,” said A-Rod, who had four hits in his last 29 at-bats (.138) with runners in scoring position and was batting .197 (23-for-117) for the year in the clutch.
To say the Yankees need A-Rod delivering in the clutch is an understatement. Forget the money he makes. He bats fourth in a lineup that hasn’t had Jason Giambi since late July and may not have him again until April. He bats behind Sheffield, a legitimate MVP candidate, and in front of Hideki Matsui, the Yankees’ second-best player next to Sheffield. So he will get pitches to hit.
It’s up to him to do something with them. He couldn’t do it in the fifth, when he vacuumed the life out of a rally by hitting into a double play with runners on first and second and one out after the Yankees had scored three runs to cut a 4-0 deficit to one. In the seventh, A-Rod grounded to short with a runner on second, one out and the Yankees trailing by a run.
So when he stepped in to face Frasor, A-Rod told himself no more soft grounders.
“The one thing I was happy with versus the other at-bats was that I attacked the ball,” A-Rod said. “I wasn’t going to get myself in a situation where I gave it a three-quarter swing. If I struck out, I struck out. If I got a good pitch to hit, I was going to swing the [bleep] out of it and see what happens.”
What happened was a two-run single that A-Rod should have made second on easily. But he shot a glance into the Yankees’ dugout on the way to first and had to stay at first after a round turn.
“I was so pumped up about the hit, I [messed up] on the bases,” said A-Rod, who scored the seventh run on Matsui’s single after being balked to second.
Can one hit get A-Rod going? We’ll see. Can A-Rod hit .300 in the clutch for the final month after hovering at .200 for the first five? If he does, Thursday night’s single that should have been a double will be looked at as the start. And if he doesn’t? It will be viewed as a tease.