ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez made his bed several times when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, so feel free to speculate why at a very advanced baseball age with two surgically repaired hips and having missed all of last season, he easily is the Yankees’ best hitter.
On the first day he worked out at the minor league complex in Tampa, Rodriguez, who has admitted using PEDs during a storied but tainted career, said he was clean.
The public either believes him or they don’t, and there is nothing he can do about it.
Yet there is no denying what he has meant to the Yankees and there was no better example than the show Rodriguez put on Friday night against the Rays at Tropicana Field, when he carried the club to a 5-4 victory in front of an embarrassingly small crowd of 15,752.
“Hard to say, not 4-6,’’ manager Joe Girardi said when asked where the Yankees would be without their 39-year-old designated hitter, who homered twice and drove in four runs. “He is a huge part of our offense.’’
The first homer landed in the Captain Morgan Deck well beyond the center-field fence in the second inning and gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Rodriguez tucked a two-run homer inside the left-field foul pole in the sixth that tied the score, 4-4. In the eighth, his two-out single to center scored pinch-runner Brett Gardner from second with the eventual winning run.
“It certainly felt good,’’ Rodriguez said of the first blast, which was measured by MLB equipment at 471 feet while ESPN’s calculations had it a 477 feet.
The two homers put him two away from tying Willie Mays at 660 for fourth place on the all-time list. Should he reach that mark, it likely will ignite a battle between him and the Yankees’ front office, because there is a clause in his contract that states he receives $6 million for tying Mays. The Yankees contend since they can’t market the achievement because of last year’s suspension due to Rodriguez’s involvement in the Biogenesis mess, he isn’t due the money.
“I try not to think about it, I try to help the team win,’’ said Rodriguez, who is the Yankees’ Triple Crown winner with a .344 (11-for-32) average, four homers and 11 RBIs.
Rodriguez also scored three runs, passing Derek Jeter (1,923) for ninth place on the all-time runs list. Rodriguez now has 1,926 runs scored and is just 23 away from tying Stan Musial (1,949).
The Mays milestone appears to be a toxic one in the Yankees clubhouse.
“There is no point getting into that,’’ Gardner said of Rodriguez closing in on Mays. “I am aware of where he is at.’’
Could it be the resin that has smothered the crown of Rodriguez’s batting helmet the past two games, since he touches his right hand to the hat several times during each at-bat?
“Next question,’’ he said smiling.
There were a lot of smiles in the clubhouse after the Yankees stopped a two-game losing streak. Stephen Drew homered and relievers Esmil Rogers, Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller combined for five shutout innings after starter Adam Warren went four innings and gave up four runs and six hits — including consecutive homers by Allan Dykstra and Logan Forsythe in a four-run fourth.
Still, the focus was on Rodriguez. The visiting clubhouse manager moved his locker from one side of the room to the other and gave him a double just as CC Sabathia and Carlos Beltran have, but the scene was very familiar no matter where he stood.
The talk was of homers — and only four players have been better at hitting those than Rodriguez in the history of baseball.
“I don’t think anyone knew what to expect including myself,’’ Rodriguez said.
Now, 10 games into a very long season, Rodriguez is the Yankees’ best player by about as much distance as the first home run traveled.