Results tagged “alexrodriguez”

The Yankees face off with the Phillies tonight for Game 3 of the World Series. They headed to the city of Brotherly Love by way of a train from Penn Station—while fans cheered them in NY, there were Phillies fans ready to taunt them at the 30th Street Station. One Phanatic said, "This is a blue-collar town. We don't like people like A-Rod; guys like that who are on the covers of magazines. Our players put up the same numbers without all the glamour."

After Wednesday night's lost chance to clinch the ALCS, the Yankees face off against the Angels tonight. The Daily News' Mike Lupica is impatient and frustrated and tells the Bronx Bombers today: "You're the Yankees and you've won 109 games already this season, and when you're that good, when you're this loaded, you can't let it all come down to a one-game season, not after you had the Angels down three games to one...You bring the World Series back to New York tonight."

Yankees 10 Angels 1: For the first time in five years, the Yankees are one win away from the World Series. Everyone knows what happened in 2004, so the team should not be guilty of counting its chickens before they hatch. CC Sabathia pitched eight innings of one-run ball -- on three days' rest -- and Alex Rodriguez continued his monster postsesaon by going 3-for-4 with a homer. He also scored the game's first run. Melky Cabrera also went 3-for-4 and had a critical two-run single.

This game took over five hours, but it leaves the Yankees in the catbird seat in the best-of-seven ALCS. Alex Rodriguez hit a game-tying homer in the bottom of the 11th. Is it safe to retire the "he's not clutch" storyline? In the 13th, the Yankees took advantage of Maicer Izturis' throwing error, as Jerry Hairston, who led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice, scored. Starters A.J. Burnett and Joe Saunders dueled to a draw, each allowing two runs. Alfredo Aceves served up the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th, but Rodriguez saved his and his teammates' bacon. Derek Jeter had a solo homer and an error that proved meaningless. Robinson Cano had an RBI triple and two errors that proved meaningless. Was this a classic, or just long?

     

The Yankees are headed to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2004—when they lost to the Red Sox—and now they are signing the praises of Alex Rodriguez. Manager Joe Girardi said, "Without Alex, we're probably not in this situation right now. We're probably still playing. He had a monster series, monster hits."

As she continues her high-profile romance with the Yankees' third baseman, Kate Hudson is getting a little boost from the Yankees. At least, that's what Page Six says.

The Yankees are one game away from the American League Championship Series, after last night's dramatic 4-3 win in game two of the Division Series over the Minnesota Twins. The game went into extra innings, courtesy of Alex Rodriguez, who hit a game-tying two-run home run off All-Star closer Joe Nathan in the 9th inning, tying the game at 3-3. Then, in the 11th inning, Teixiera hit a home run—what the NY Times called "a screamer down the left-field line...The ball just cleared the 318-foot sign and sent the crowd of 50,006 into sudden delirium."

• Yankees 6, Angels 5: After a one-year absence, the Yankees will play in October again. They clinched a berth when Oakland defeated Texas. Then the Yankees bounced back to beat the Angels after blowing a 5-0 lead. Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the third -- as did Jorge Posada -- and then hit the tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the ninth. Chad Gaudin, a stealth candidate to be in the playoff rotation, started strong but couldn't finish the fifth inning. Alfredo Aceves and Phil Hughes combined to blow the lead, but Mariano Rivera held the one-run margin in the ninth. The Yankees didn't pop any Champagne or do anything crazy. They're saving that for a division title. The magic number for that is six. The Yankees are six up with 10 games left -- the Red Sox have 12. The teams play three times in the Bronx this weekend.
• Braves 3, Mets 1: Only 10 games left. That's right, only 10. Nelson Figueroa pitched seven innings of two-run ball but got zero help from the "bats" in the Mets' lineup. The No. 3-6 hitters went 1-for-15. Brian Schneider got two hits, doubling his total for the season. Luis Castillo put the Mets on the board first with an RBI single in the third, but Figueroa gave up both his runs in the top of the fourth. Mike Pelfrey faces Tim Hudson as the Mets close out their penultimate homestand on Wednesday night.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Back to the Playoffs"

• Yankees 2, Red Sox 0 (15 innings): A memorable game that saw dominant pitching, poor timely hitting and a two-out, two-run homer by Alex Rodriguez to end the game in the bottom of the 15th. A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett locked in a pitchers' duel but combined to work only half of the innings in this game. In the hits department, Burnett allowed only a leadoff single to Jacoby Ellsbury. He also walked six and struck out six. The Yankees had chances throughout extra innings and would have won in the 14th if not for a lunging catch in right field by J.D. Drew. CC Sabathia and Clay Buchholz continue the series Saturday at 4 p.m. The Yankees now lead the AL East by 4 1/2 games, their largest margin of the season.

If you glanced at the Daily News' cover today, you might think the tabloid was saying a kiss between Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Hollywood starlet Kate Hudson will make you sick. Actually the "Sick" headline refers to a disturbing look at city hospitals, while A-Rod and K-Hud's canoodling has its own feature: According to sports writer Rich Shapiro, the pair "put on a very public display of affection for the first time, locking lips during the team's annual family picnic." And A-Rod's two daughters, Ella, 1, and Natasha, 4, were also present. Yankees manager Joe Girardi may give Rodriguez a day off, since he's "4-for-22 with no homers and three RBIs in his last six games, and he's whiffed six times in his last three games." Newsday points out it could be "preventive," since "A-Rod turns 34 Monday and had a big birthday bash planned for last night in the city, thrown by Hudson, with all his Yankees teammates invited." It's unclear what the overall Hudson effect on A-Rod's performance is; a few weeks ago, it seemed mixed.

• Yankees 6, Orioles 4: Here are the Yankees' most recent for series: sweep of Twins, swept by Angels, sweep of Tigers, sweep of Orioles. Taking care of Baltimore is the least impressive of those -- well, maybe losing three straight to the Angels is less impressive -- but the Yankees will take it. They're now 20 games over .500 and looking better than they have in several seasons. Alex Rodriguez started the scoring with an RBI single in a four-run fourth. A.J. Burnett pitched seven innings of two-run ball.

Yankees 2, Detroit 1: CC Sabathia was able to pitch out of any jams he had gotten himself into yesterday afternoon, using double plays and a one-out infield fly in order to keep the Tigers scoreless for the seven innings he threw. Tiger ace Justin Verlander appeared to be outpitching Sabathia until the Yankees came up in the seventh. There A-Rod landed a short home run into the right field seats and Robinson Cano scored what ended up being the winning run on a Melky Cabrera infield single. The Yankees go for the sweep this afternoon in The Bronx.

• Mets 1, Brewers 0: This one was simple. Mike Pelfrey worked 7 2/3 scoreless innings, Ryan Church singled in the game's only run in the sixth, and the Mets snapped a five-game losing streak. Francisco Rodriguez got the save. For those looking to credit Tuesday's 28-minute meeting, note this: Pelfrey wasn't at the meeting. The Mets are one game under .500 but still in the thick of things in the wonderful world of the National League.
• Yankees 4, Mariners 2: Not only have the Yankees won seven straight games, but they haven't trailed since the sixth inning of last Wednesday's win against Atlanta. Alex Rodriguez hit a go-ahead homer for the second straight night. This time, the bullpen made it stand up. Andy Pettitte even pitched well at Yankee Stadium for once, allowing two runs in six innings. He struck out five and walked one in six innings.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: One Streak Ends"

It took Alex Rodriguez some 13-plus seasons to have the scheduling gods grant his first ever regular game season to be played in his hometown of Miami against the Marlins. How did Joe Girardi celebrate the homecoming? By giving A-Rod the first two games of the series off due to "fatigue." But is A-Rod exhausted from leftover effects of off-season hip surgery—or being linked to Hollywood starlets? The Post says that Rodriguez was able to get enough leverage out of his recovering hips to make a night of it with new romantic band-aid Kate Hudson in South Beach until 2:30 in the morning after spending Friday night's game on the bench. Despite sitting out, A-Rod had 100 tickets put aside for friends and family to watch the Yankees win without their slumping third baseman, who is hitless in his last 15 at-bats and hitting .212 for the season. The doctor who performed A-Rod's hip surgery said that he was happy to see him rest and wished the slugger had already sat more, instead of playing all of his first 38 games back, with only three as DH.

• Red Sox 4, Yankees 3: CC Sabathia pitched well for seven innings, but his work in the eighth cost him the game. The Yankees rallied to take a 3-1 lead on an Alex Rodriguez double in the seventh, but Sabathia put the first three men on in the eighth before being relieved by Alfredo Aceves, who promptly finished the job. The Yankees are now 0-8 against the Red Sox, but they only trail in the American League East by two games. They wasted chances in all three games. they'll try to get things turned around against the Mets starting Friday.

• Mets 6, Phillies 5: Who says Citi Field suppresses home runs? Ryan Church, Carlos Beltran and David Wright all went yard as the Mets overcame a shaky start by Johan Santana, who allowed four Philadelphia home runs. Santana, who squandered a 3-0 lead, helped himself with a game-tying double in the sixth, and Alex Cora drove in the go-ahead run. Francisco Rodriguez worked around a Jimmy Rollins single in the ninth to get his 16th save in 16 chances. He then pointed to the sky three times -- once for each out he got? The Mets trail the Phillies by two games in the National League East.

• At the 141st running of the Belmont Stakes a horse sired by 2004 stakes winner Birdstone won, but it wasn't the horse that most people bet on. Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up Mine That Bird wasn't able to give Calvin Borel his "personal triple crown." Instead, it was Kent Desormeaux on Summer Bird that walked away with the blanket of white carnations. The win was Desormeaux's first Belmont Stakes. He previously lost by a nose on Real Quiet in 1998 and was forced to ease Big Brown in 2008. Summer Bird went off at 11-1 odds in the "Test of the Champion," a race in which the favorite has only won 6 of the last 30 times. Summer Bird beat Dunkirk by 2 3/4 lengths with Mine That Bird finishing third. Desormeaux was also a big winner on the day, winning four races at the track for the day.
• Rays 9, Yankees 7: After rallying for two runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game, the Yankees saw Mariano Rivera wilt and give up four runs in the top of the ninth. This game had six errors -- including three by Rays catcher and former Yankee Dioner Navarro. Both teams forfeited the designated hitter in the ninth inning. David Price didn't last as long as CC Sabathia, but he did leave in line for a win before the Rays' bullpen blew it. Sabathaia, like so many other Yankees pitchers, got burned by the longball. Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez had solo shots for the Yankees, who are now 2-9 against Tampa Bay and Boston.
• Nationals 7, Mets 1: Quick but not painless. Long Beach's John Lannan shut down the Mets in a complete-game four-hitter. John Maine didn't have it, allowing seven runs (and three homers) in four-plus innings. Four innings of strong relief by Ken Takahashi and Fernando Nieve were meaningless.

• Yankees 5, Phillies 4: Hope you didn't donate that old "Got Melky?" t-shirt you bought a couple years back because it looks like it might be a hot item once again this summer. Melky Cabrera had his third game-winning hit of the young season yesterday with an RBI single off of Phillies' closer Brad Lidge to cap off another dramatic win in the Bronx. The Yanks came into the 9th down by two runs, but that lead was quickly erased when A-Rod took a full count fastball and sent it over everyone's favorite right field fence. After the game, Rodriguez called himself "the happiest .200 hitter in baseball," since seven of the ten total hits he has since returning have left the ballpark.
• Mets 3, Red Sox 2: After the Yankees disposed of last year's World Series champs and their star closer, the Mets pulled the same trick on the 2007 champs and their premiere stopper. Met catcher Omir Santos may have needed a little help from instant replay to record his second career home run, but that didn't take away much excitement from the two-run shot that handed Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon his first blown save of the year. The home run was originally ruled a double, only to be corrected in the first replay review in Fenway history. Until the big ninth inning hit, the Boston crowd had watched a pitcher's duel between Josh Beckett and Mike Pelfrey that hadn't seen any runs put on the board since the first inning. In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets had to turn to JJ Putz to finish things off as Francisco Rodriguez became their latest casualty to sit out with an injury, suffering through back spasms.

• Yankees 7, Twins 6: Andy Pettitte gave up two runs in the first inning, but the Yankees had his back. They got four runs before they made an out and six runs in the frame. Then they held on with Mariano Rivera sitting in the bullpen. Mark Teixeira had a three-run homer (as a righty) and a solo shot (as a lefty). Alex Rodriguez went deep right after Teixeira did in the first. Pettitte struck out three and walked one in his 6 1/3 innings. Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras and Phil Coke combined to almost give up the lead. This game ended a streak of three straight walk-off wins, but the Yankees will take it. They have won six straight.
• Dodgers 3, Mets 2 (11 innings): After getting an impressive start from Tim Redding and tying the game in the eighth inning, the Mets threw it away. Ryan Church missed third base in the 11th, costing the Mets the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, Carlos Beltran and Jeremy Reed both made errors, and the Dodgers walked off with the victory. The worst news of the day came earlier, as the Mets learned they would be without Carlos Delgdo for about two months. He has a hip injury similar to the one that kept the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez out of action.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Yankees Hang On"

• Yankees 6, Twins 4 (11 innings): Alex Rodriguez didn't get a hit in his first four plate appearances Saturday, but he made the fifth one count. Rodriguez parked Craig Breslow's 1-0 offering over the fence in left field to give the Yankees their fourth straight -- and second consecutive walk-off -- win. Mark Teixeira had four hits -- including a three-run homer and a double -- and a walk. Joba Chamberlain allowed two runs in six innings, striking out six and walking four. Phil Coke gave up the lead, but Mariano Rivera pitched two scoreless innings of relief before Alfredo Aceves came in for the 11th to get the win. The Yankees are now two games over .500.

• Mets 4, Braves 3: Down 3-0 entering the eighth and 3-2 entering the ninth, the Mets didn't give up. Jose Reyes doubled home two in the eighth -- he got thrown out trying to make it a triple -- and then scored the winning run in the tenth. The Mets benefited from a missed call in the ninth that let Carlos Beltran steal third -- he was out -- and then score on a Luis Castillo sacrifice fly. Beltran walked in the winning run in the 10th, capping a rally that started with two out and no one on.

Guilty person? Or the guiltiest person? Roger Clemens went on ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning Show to repeat his denials of performance-enhancing drugs use. He ended his lengthy media silence in the the wake the release of a book detailing said alleged use. Clemens didn't say anything new — he thinks drugs are bad, personal trainer Brian McNamee never injected him with anything illegal and that it would be impossible for his DNA to be on any drug-related paraphernalia. Based on his family history or heart attacks, Clemens said, it would be "suicidal" to take PEDs. He points to Manny Ramirez's case as a point in his favor. After all, Clemens has never failed a test, and "we have great testing." Clemens was also "sad" about Alex Rodriguez's admitted use, but he said, "I try to root for him." When asked if he expects to make the Hall of Fame, Clemens said, "Obviously I would love to get in, but I don't have any control over that. I think they [his stats] speak for themselves."

Facing a chorus of boos from Baltimore fans, some welcoming him back by holding up Styrofoam needles, Alex Rodriguez sent the first pitch he saw this season over the left field fence at Camden Yards. A-Rod said, "It was a dream. It's been two months, which is a long time. I've been watching a lot of baseball, being very frustrated. I feel like I'm back with my family now where I belong." He admitted that the 98 mph fastball from Jeremy Guthrie was a pitch that he would have struggled with last season before undergoing hip surgery that delayed his 2009 start by five weeks. The three-run homer ended up being all CC Sabathia needed, pitching a complete game shutout in what was easily his best outing as a Yankee. With the Yankees struggling and his onslaught of bad press throughout the off-season, A-Rod enjoyed the fresh start, saying, “I played baseball and forgot everything else. In ’08, I got away from that a little bit. I have no one to blame but myself."

[Updated 5:45 p.m.]Manny Ramirez is going to be suspended for fifty games by Major League Baseball after getting caught using a banned substance. The LA Times broke the story, saying that the suspension will begin immediately, keeping Ramirez out until July 3 and costing him $7.7 million, roughly 31% of his $25-million salary.

Today is the release of the unauthorized biography on Alex Rodriguez that has seemingly pushed the superstar into the villain column of American athletes by revealing that A-Rod had once tested positive for steroids. Other than A-Rod's initial snap reaction that author Selena Roberts was "stalking him" (which he later retracted and apologized to her for), much of the attention around the book has landed solely on Rodriguez and the numerous allegations against him leaked before the book's publishing. That is, until yesterday when Yankee Manager Joe Girardi said he didn't understand "why anyone would write a book like this."

The new accusations against A-Rod in the upcoming biography on him—that he used steroids while on the Yankees and tipped off pitches to opposing players—are now being looked into by Major League Baseball. Officials had already met with A-Rod to ask questions soon after his initial admissions of using illegal steroids while with Texas Rangers. A sports law expert told the Times, “The last thing (Commissioner Bud Selig) wants is for someone else, like the federal government or Congress, to try and intercede and take this matter out of his hands.”

With "juicy" details being spilled from the new biography of Alex Rodriguez by Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts, publisher Harper Collins has decided to move the book's release up from May 12 to this coming Monday—hey, it's #1 on Amazon for sports books. Today the Daily News offers these bits: He "was an insecure prima donna who made a clubhouse attendant load his toothbrush with toothpaste after every game in his three seasons with the Texas Rangers" and "During a series in Texas, Roberts writes, A-Rod went to a sex club while his wife, Cynthia, pregnant with their first child, was at home in New York." Newsday says, "The book also accuses Rodriguez of tipping pitches to opponents during blowouts and that he expected those players to reciprocate when he needed a hit and it would not affect the outcome of games." Newsday adds that the book's allegations meant that Joe Girardi's pre-game press conference was mostly about A-Rod, though there was a swine flu question.

Over the last six months, we've learned that Alex Rodriguez has been given the nicknames A-Roid, A-Fraud and A-SWF. Now we're told of nickname for the slugger back in 2005..."Bitch Tits." According to the upcoming biography that first broke the news he had tested positive for steroids, A-Rod was called that by fellow Yankees who noticed some extra cuppage on the third baseman, a sign to some that he was using HGH. A-Rod has denied using steroids during his tenure with the Yankees, but the book talks to players and management who say that many in the organization suspected that he was and it quotes one major leaguer who accuses him of using HGH with former Yankee Kevin Brown in 2004. Other new revelations in the book include allegations that A-Rod used steroids as early as high school, tipped off pitches to friends on opposing teams and, most heinous of all, only tips 15% when he eats at Hooters.