Alex Rodriguez had quite a night Tuesday at the Stadium. In fact, after his first three at bats, the real question was whether or not he would hit for the home run cycle. Alas, A Rod, did not, but his three homerun, ten RBI performance sparked the Yankees to a 124 win and may have indicated that the “real” A Rod has finally arrived in the Bronx. Regardless, for one night at least, the fans embraced A Rod as one of their own.
Lost in the glare of A Rod’s amazing performance was another solid outing by Carl Pavano. Pavano mixed and matched his pitches and while he was not overpowering, his stuff was good enough when it had to be; especially in the fifth inning when he escaped from a second and third, no one out and reigning MVP Vlad Guerrero at the plate situation by only allowing one run.
The Yankees face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim again Wednesday and Thursday at the Stadium before welcoming the Blue Jays to town this weekend. Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown will take the mound and the Yankees will keep their fingers crossed that both of them pitch well. With Jaret Wright on the DL, the Yankees need their other starters to pitch well and keep from overworking the bullpen now that rookie, Chien-Ming Wang will be joining the rotation.
Photo by NY Post/Jeff Zelevansky
