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TORONTO —
His reputation already battered after a New York newspaper detailed a rollicking night out on the town with a pretty young woman who isn't his wife, Alex Rodriguez is now public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the Toronto Blue Jays.
This time, it was not who was on his arm, but what he uttered from his mouth that has drawn the ire of the Blue Jays. The New York slugger appeared to break one of the unwritten rules of baseball when he confused two Toronto players tracking an infield fly by calling out that he had it.
"I've never seen it happen," Toronto manager John Gibbons said of the play that led to the second of four runs that the Yankees piled on in the ninth inning last night. The added runs helped New York to a 10-5 victory at the Rogers Centre that averted a three-game Blue Jays sweep.
"Maybe I'm naive, but I think it was a bush league play."
Alex Rodriguez plays his first game since revelations about his personal life hit the front pages of the New York tabloids. (Adrian Wyld/CP)
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- Chicago White Sox
- Los Angeles Angels
- New York Yankees
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Brian Bruney
- Melky Cabrera
- Robinson Cano
- Howie Clark
- Tyler Clippard
- Johnny Damon
- Troy Glaus
- Jesse Litsch
- John McDonald
- Josh Phelps
- Jorge Posada
- Alex Rios
- Ryan Roberts
- Alex Rodriguez
- Matt Stairs
- Brian Tallet
- Jamie Vermilyea
The desperate Yankees, looking to snap a five-game losing skid, carried a 6-5 lead into the ninth inning and then added another run when Melky Cabrera scored from third base on a single by Rodriguez.
With Hideki Matsui on third base and two out, New York's Jorge Posada lifted a high infield pop fly down the left side that Jays' newcomer Howie Clark was camping out under.
At the last moment, however, Clark gave way just as Rodriguez was pulling into third base, and the ball landed harmlessly between Clark, the third baseman, and shortstop John McDonald.
Matsui scored on the play to increase the Yankees' lead to 8-5.
The replays clearly show Rodriguez yelling something out like "mine" just as he was heading into the bag, causing Clark to pull up and let the ball fall to the turf.
Rodriguez later claimed that he yelled out "ha" and that he only said it after he had rounded third base.
"I just said, 'Ha.' That's it," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
The Yankees' third baseman said it is something that happens to him "three or four times a week" when opposing players sitting in the dugout call out to try to distract him from catching a foul ball. He said it's "part of baseball."
Pressed to explain exactly what he was trying to accomplish when he yelled out, Rodriguez said, "I don't know what my intentions were."
The Blue Jays begged to differ.
"I was under the fly ball and I thought I was called off," Clark said. "It wasn't Johnny Mac. I let it drop.
"I was under it and I heard a mine call, so I let it go."
After the play, the normally mild-mannered McDonald had to be restrained by Clark, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse earlier in the day and was playing in his first game, from going after Rodriguez.
As Rodriguez stood smugly at third base, he and McDonald engaged in a shouting match that finally ended after the umpires intervened.
"One thing you know about the Yankees, one of the reason they're so respected, they do things right," Gibbons said. "They always have.
"They have a lot of pride, a lot of class and they play the game hard. And that's not Yankee pride right there. That's not the way they play."
It was a bizarre ending to a drawn-out contest that took more than 31/2 hours to complete.
The Yankees got a big lift in the game in the first inning, in which they chased Toronto's Jesse Litsch from the game, pounding the rookie for five runs on four hits, including a leadoff home run by Johnny Damon.
It was enough for New York's Tyler Clippard to hang on and fashion the win, handcuffing the Jays on three runs on four hits during five innings of work.
After the game, the Blue Jays announced they were optioning Litsch back to the minor leagues.
Clippard sailed along with a no-hitter until the third inning, when he was greeted by a home run off the bat of Alex Rios, a two-run shot to left field that trimmed the New York lead to 5-2. For the right fielder, it was his team-leading 12th home run of the season.
Light-hitting (.265) McDonald got into the act after that for Toronto, smacking his first home run of the season, to right field in the fourth inning, and suddenly the Yankees' lead was down to 5-3.
The Yankees got the lead back up to three in the sixth inning after Robinson Cano was cashed from second base on a single to centre field by Melky Cabrera.
Matt Stairs continued his recent power surge in the seventh inning, greeting New York reliever Brian Bruney with a two-run home run that left the field in an awful hurry to right field, cutting the New York advantage to 6-5.
