DETROIT — After missing all of 2014 due to suspension, Alex Rodriguez decided baseball is best served taking it one day at a time.
With 658 career homers the Yankees’ designated hitter is two shy of tying Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time list going into Thursday’s game against the Tigers, which he might not start.
“I’ll talk when we get there,’’ said Rodriguez, who went 1-for-4 with two walks and a run scored in Wednesday night’s 13-4 win. He has two hits in his last 17 at-bats and hasn’t homered in his last 26 plate appearances. He has four homers and 11 RBIs this season.
With the Mets invading Yankee Stadium for three Subway Series games beginning Friday, Rodriguez was asked about facing starters Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey.
“I’ll answer that when we are done here,’’ Rodriguez said. “Detroit has been the gold standard for a while. They are as good as advertised. We want to focus on [Wednesday and Thursday].’’
Rodriguez said he hasn’t thought about the $6 million bonus for tying Mays, something the Yankees don’t want to pay because his involvement in the Biogenesis mess makes the event unmarketable.
Manager Joe Girardi hopes the chase of Mays isn’t a repeat of the struggles Rodriguez experienced while going for his 500th and 600th home runs. It took him 10 days to get 500 and almost two weeks for 600.
“I hope this happens quickly,’’ said Girardi, who was waiting to see how Wednesday night’s game went before deciding whether to give Rodriguez off for Thursday’s matinee. “He has to relax, go be himself and not worry about it.’’
Girardi said he isn’t in an uncomfortable spot when it comes to the bonus situation because his job is to get the best out of Rodriguez no matter the situation.
Until the recent slump, Rodriguez was the Yankees’ best hitter.
“It’s not easy doing what he is doing at 25 or 30,’’ Girardi said of Rodriguez, who will turn 40 in July. “He is finding ways to get it done.’’
As for Rodriguez’s history with performance-enhancing drugs, Girardi has moved on.
“Obviously, you don’t want any of your players to do that, we want this game to be clean,’’ Girardi said of PED use. “Sometimes people will make bad choices. He paid the consequences and we had to struggle through it because we didn’t have him. That is in the past and we have to move forward.’’
Jacoby Ellsbury was hit in the chest by a 91 mph fastball from David Price in the first inning, when the temperature was 38 degrees.
“It felt like a frozen snowball at 93 mph right at the heart,’’ said Ellsbury, who stayed in the game, went 2-for-4 and drove in his first run.
The Yankees were forced to take batting practice in the indoor cages for a third straight day at Comerica Park. Rain cancelled Monday’s and Tuesday’s BPs and the tarp never left the field before Wednesday’s game due the cold weather and light snow flakes in the area during the day.
The Yankees didn’t take BP on Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla., and likely won’t take it before Thursday’s day game against the Tigers. That means it will be five days in between sessions if they take BP on Friday night before the first game against the Mets at Yankee Stadium.
Girardi returned the ice-cold Carlos Beltran to the lineup Wednesday night after giving the switch hitter a rest Tuesday evening. But Beltran didn’t start at the expense of a red-hot Chris Young.
Since the left-handed hitting Brett Gardner was 3-for-22 (.136) against Price, Girardi used Young in left field. Young, who had been 0-for-5 against Price, opened the game on a 8-for-22 (.364) tear, finished 3-for-6 and is hitting .368.
“[Young] is swinging so well it’s hard to keep him out of the lineup,’’ Girardi said.
Girardi said Gardner will be back in the lineup Thursday when the Tigers starter righty Anibal Sanchez.
Beltran started Wednesday night’s action hitting .171 (7-for-41) with a .222 on-base percentage but went 2-for-5 and drove in a run with a second-inning triple off Price.
“I am better, I feel good at the plate,’’ said Beltran, who missed two games against the Rays with a severe chest cold.
First-year Yankees third-base coach Joe Espada was not with the club Wednesday night in order to be in Florida for the birth of daughter, Viviana.
Rob Thomson subbed for Espada. Thomson was the third-base coach from 2009 to 2014.