LAKELAND, Fla. -- It hadn't been that long between home runs for Alex Rodriguez -- he had actually hit one on March 11 at home against Boston -- but when the ball left his bat and head toward right field on Friday, A-Rod looked like a man not entirely sure what to do next.
And afterward, when asked to describe how it felt to drive a 96 MPH fastball over the fence the opposite way, the man with more home runs than all but four other players in major-league history acted as if he had never hit one before.
"I laugh when people say, you can’t hit a ball in the mid 90s anymore," Rodriguez said after his home run in the fifth inning accounted for one of the runs in the New York Yankees' 11-2 victory against the Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium. "I couldn’t hit it in my prime when I was 28, certainly not consistently. When a guy’s throwing 95, 96, and he’s spotting, maybe Mike Trout or some of those great young superstars can hit it, but not me, so."
Of course, when A-Rod was 28, he had already hit 345 home runs, won the first of his three MVP awards, and was about to embark on the Yankees portion of his career, which is now about to enter its 11th season. Surely he must have hit a few fastballs in that time. But this is the new A-Rod, self-deprecating almost to a fault, who has apparently decided that the best way to defeat his potential critics is by beating them to the punch and criticizing himself worse than any of them ever could.
"It’s been so long since I hit a ball that way," Rodriguez said. "I was actually hoping it came back into play so I wouldn’t have to run the bases."
What actually happened was that A-Rod's shot, off a 96 MPH fastball from Bruce Rondon, left the premises so quickly he had barely rounded first, and caromed so hard off something above the top of the wall that it bounded back onto the field, fooling A-Rod and Tigers right-fielder J.D. Martinez, into thinking the ball was in play. Rodriguez pulled up awkwardly between first and second and headed back, until first base umpire Jerry Layne, whose finger was in the air immediately, instructed him to reverse course and complete his tour of the bases.
It was probably the best at-bat and best swing of his spring so far. It stopped a 1-for-14 slump -- the one hit being a single off the wall on March 14 in Dunedin -- and though it might not cancel out some of the awkward, looping swings Rodriguez has also shown this spring, it offered a glimmer of hope that there might be some pop left in his soon to be 40-year-old bat after all.
"I’ve been out in front of the ball," he said. "I mean, I hit two of the weakest groundballs I think I’ve ever seen hit my first two at-bats (off starter Alfredo Simon). "So the fact that this guy (Rondon) threw so hard probably helped my case a little bit."
However, under prodding, A-Rod was forced to admit, "It felt good to swing the bat well today."
Rodriguez' tactic, of course, is intended as a pre-emptive strike against the criticism he suspects, or knows, lurks around every corner. He was serenaded with chants of "De-rek Je-ter!" in Dunedin, and hasn't gotten the universal approval of any crowd this spring, not even at home. The Marchant crowd booed him before every at-bat, and showered him with jeers after the home run, one fan shouting out, "Pee in the cup!" as he crossed home plate.
And his recent performances at the plate have not been of the caliber to inspire a lot of confidence in his remaining abilities. He looked especially bad in his final at-bat Thursday night, when he flailed awkwardly at a curveball from a left-hander, Andy Oliver. But the kind of contact he made with Rondon's fastball on Friday was a glimpse back to when home runs to right-center were an almost everyday occurrence for A-Rod, and for the Yankees, hopefully a peek into the future.
Because in case you have forgotten, that is what Alex Rodriguez is here for. Not for his glove -- the first base experiment appears to be over and it's unlikely he'll get much time at third, either -- or for his legs, even if he did beat out the relay throw on a potential double-play grounder in the Yankees six-run first inning. Rodriguez is here for his bat, the one he (unconvincingly) says was never able to get around on a fastball, anyway.
He got around on a good one Friday, and if he is going to have to get around on a lot more of them if his bat is to be of any real value to the Yankees this season. That is why, when the rest of the team leaves for a two-day road trip across the state, to Port St. Lucie and Viera, on Sunday and Monday, Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran, another aging slugger trying to relocate his stroke, will be left behind to pile up at-bats against minor-league pitching.
"I am excited to get the opportunity to get some at-bats," he said. "Hopefully I can bat 10 or 12 times those days. The goal for me down here is to see as many pitches as possible, and to make good contact. Today was a good day for that."
And a good day to remember how to do something he used to do with regularity, and without humility.
Adam's the bomb: In his fifth start of the spring, Adam Warren pitched five innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits, one of them a solo home run by Yoenis Cespedes in the fifth inning. Warren walked none and struck out three in a significantly better performance than the one turned in by Esmil Rogers, his chief rival for the No. 5 start's job, on Thursday night. "It definitely adds a little bit to it," Warren said of knowing he and Rogers are in direct competition. "We know the situation, we know what's going on. We just want to go out there and pitch as well as we can."
Ryan's hope: Brendan Ryan made his first start since straining a back muscle early in camp, and smoked an RBI double into the left-field corner in his first plate appearance. "I guess I should go six months between at-bats more often," he joked. Others who contributed to the Yankees six-run first: Brett Gardner, who led off the game with a triple off the wall in right; Brian McCann, who singled home Ryan; Jose Pirela, who doubled in two runs, and Rob Refsnyder, who capped the scoring with a two-run homer, all off starter Alfredo Simon.
