No two Yankee hitters have struggled as much of late as Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui. Rodriguez struck out in the fourth inning last night, swining through a hittable slider that Casey Fossum left over the plate; with the Yanks trailing 2-0 in the sixth, he tapped into an inning-ending double play. Normally, Rodriguez is so fluid that it almost seems as if the game is easy for him. However, in the middle of a rough stretch, everything looks difficult for him, from recognizing pitches, to being able to put a good swing on the ball. On the other hand, Matsui had a single but was robbed of two hits. While Rodriguez looked out-of-whack, Matsui’s at bats were encouraging. He was simply running into hard luck, just off. Yet the Bombers eventually tied the game–and received some fine pitching from starter Jared Wright and relievers Ron Villone and Kyle Farnsworth (my boy Farnsworth, was particularly sharp).
The game went into extra innings and Johnny Damon doubled to start the tenth. Derek Jeter followed with a walk, and Jason Giambi’s ground out advanced the runners. Rodriguez had another chance and got ahead in the count, 2-0. He fouled off a slider bearing in on his hands and on TV, he appeared uncomfortable, though Joe Torre had given him a bit of encouragement just before he went to bat. According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:
While Rodriguez waited to hit, Torre tried to get his attention. The bench coach Lee Mazzilli whistled him over from the on-deck circle, and Torre gave him a message.
“Just hit the ball on the good part of the bat,” Torre said, repeating what he told Rodriguez. “Just trust the ball will find a hole somewhere. Have an at-bat where you just make good contact.”
Rodriguez stroked the next pitch into center field for an RBI single. Matsui followed with a ground ball single that snuck through the infield, driving in another run. A-ha. Nice and easy. No 500 foot dingers, just two singles. It was enough, as Mariano Rivera closed the door and the Yanks came away with a tidy 4-2 victory in Tampa Bay.
