Hit’em Where They Ain’t-Rod (Unless There Are Runners On)
It’s not up there (in Yankees history) with the Lemon ordered Bobby Murcer bunt in Game 3 of the 1981 Word Series, or the July 1978 against Martin’s orders Reggie Jackson bunt, but, clearly, it’s now time to update the Alex Rodriguez Yankeesography with this great achievement.
Via ESPN -
With the Yankees trailing the Orioles 6-1 on Tuesday night, Alex Rodriguez strode to the plate to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning.
Baltimore starter Brian Matusz threw a first-pitch breaking ball, and Rodriguez — with 633 career home runs to his name — shocked everyone in the stadium by laying a bunt down the third-base line.
A-Rod easily made it first base safely — his first bunt for a hit since 2004 — but the next three hitters all made out, stranding him at first base, in what turned out to be a 7-1 Orioles victory.
“Whatever it takes to win, you’re gonna try to do,” Rodriguez said of the bunt after the game. “Obviously we’re down five, I’m leading off the inning. I saw [Wilson] Betemit [playing] back, I saw an opportunity to get on base, and I took it.”
“Smart play,” said manager Joe Girardi. “We need base runners, that’s the bottom line. We’re trying to put together a big inning, and you need a bunch of base runners, so I don’t have a problem with it.”
An inning later, with the bases juiced and two outs, Rodriguez again came up to the plate, with a chance to put a serious dent in the Orioles’ lead. A-Rod again offered at the first pitch, but this time he popped out to the catcher in foul territory.
Rodriguez responded by slamming his helmet to the ground as he ran down the first-base line, and heard plenty of boos afterward.
“Beautiful pitch to hit,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, that’s exactly the pitch you want, right down the middle, hanging slider, and I should have done a lot better than popping up to the catcher.”
If you wanted to get on him for his 8th inning at-bat, then do that, but to somehow act pissed about him bunting to get something going then I think that’s a little off-base, if you ask me.
I understand you don’t like the guy, but it gets beyond ludicrous when you nitpick at what some would consider unselfish play. I love Jeter, but if he did the same thing you would be applauding because of his keen baseball intuition. ARod bunting is NOT something he should be disparaged about.
It’s as if I said, when you said you’d become baseball blogger (you know, “random baseball thoughts which quite often have no point whatsoever”) then I guess I was expecting something like baseballmusings.com (David does all of baseball quite well over there), but what we got was a faux-baseball blog that’s really about bashing Cashman, ARod, and Hughes.
Basically, both are perpetuating a fraud: ARod as a middle of the lineup basher, but who goes for bunt singles once every 8 years. And you as an all-around baseball blogger, but you are really just interested in writing about the Yankees, so you make up some story about what the blog represents, consequently trying to conjure up a reason to keep the blog going and diminish/minimize any criticism that may come your way by continuing to post critical pieces about your favorite cast of characters from the Yankees. Makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is why you keep reading this blog and commenting at it when I annoy you so much?
Garcia wrote:
Agreed 100%.
I fail to understand how getting on base is a bad thing.
Show me where I wrote that it was.
@ Steve L.:
Cause the inter-webs are free, cause there’s new content at ww, and there’s a comment section.
Steve L. wrote:
Right. It was only implied in the title of this post: “Hit’em Where They Ain’t-Rod (Unless There Are Runners On) “
Steve, you can (and do) bash whoever you want to bash. But at least own up to it. Your line about updating Yankeeography is clearly a sarcastic way of suggesting that this is a non-accomplishment. That is as good as saying it is a “bad” thing. Or at least a thing of little to no value.
My point was that some are making a huge deal out of the bunt hit.
Yes, getting on base to start a frame is good. But, hitting with RISP when you’re in the meat of the order, is more important. That’s all.
Garcia wrote:
So, how are you any different than what you claim me to be? You say that I keep posting here, bitching about A-Rod, Hughes, and Cashman. And, I am a terrible person/blogger/whatever for doing that. And, yet, you keep posting comments here bitching about me. Kettle, black, much?
@ Steve L.:
I need examples as to how I’m different, I never said I was different about anything. So please, elaborate. Thanks!
I keep coming here to read about the Yankees, I’m just calling you out for what you claim to be. Just post about the Yankees because ultimately that’s all you’re doing anyway. The topics that generate any comments are the one’s related to the Yankees’.
Stop posting crap about players who hit 15+ triples, had 30+ homers, and had one vowel to their first and last name. You know that doesn’t get any interest, it’s just noise, and it’s going to be followed up with Yankee posts anyway that will generate comments. Everyone loves to be noticed, and you are noticed by the comments and feedback that you get.
You’re trying to be a chameleon about it all. Be real about what you are passionate about, yeah, I get it…you love baseball…but you LOVE the Yankees. And it’s not like I don’t agree with you on many things, I don’t come here to argue with you, I just think it’s hilarious the stuff you do (e.g WW Staff, using another handle that sounds just like you, this is a baseball blog, etc). It’s like everything you hate about ARod you’ve managed to become, someone with an identity crisis.
Keep it real my brother.
The fact of the matter is, A-Rod sucks right now with runners on base. Only Russel Martin has a worse average with runners on, but at least he doesn’t hit in the middle of the order. And Cano isn’t helping much either. Those guys have to get going.
@ LMJ229:
Except for ’09, Arod has usually failed w/ RISP as a Yankee.
Garcia wrote:
Stop posting crap about players who hit 15+ triples, had 30+ homers, and had one vowel to their first and last name.
I can’t find any such player. The closest I can come is Jim Rice in 1977 and 1978; but there’s two vowels to his last name. Same with Dick Allen in 1965. There’s Babe Ruth in 1921 as well; but two vowels in his first name. Lou Gehrig did it a number of times. Stan Musial and Willie Mays as well. Maybe you’re thinking “A-Rod,” but the closest he ever came was 6 3Bs and 47 HRs in 2003.
@ Jim TreshFan:
Oh my Lord, someone has way too much time on his hands …
redbug wrote:
Your narrative might need to be re-thought:
NYY (2004-2012): 4353 PA, .295/.392/.553/.945, 252 HR, 858 RBI
Career NYY RISP: 1628 PA, .286/.404/.503/.907, 71 HR, 601 RBI
RISP 2009: 193 PA, .265/.409/.450/.860, 7 HR, 67 RBI
Not only has Rodriguez been consistently productive with runners in scoring position as a Yankee, he wasn’t even especially productive in 2009 with runners in scoring position. That makes you wrong on two counts. But keep on holding onto the bullshit narrative if it makes you feel good.
Rodriguez’s worst RISP season was 2004 (191 PA, .248/.346/.439/.785, 8 HR, 66 RBI) and his best was, unsurprisingly, 2007 (235 PA, .333/.460/.678/1.138, 18 HR, 98 RBI).
LMJ229 wrote:
Yes…I’m retired.