Money players: the free-spending Yankees and Red Sox are back in the ALCS; New York boasts Alex Rodriguez, but Boston might have the better team

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 2004 by Stan McNeal

Contrast that to last Friday after A-Rod went 0-for-5 (he was 8-for-14 in the other three games against the Twins) and still was met by a New York-sized throng of reporters at his locker. "He's got nothing to say. He didn't get any hits. 0-for-5," kidded Mike Mussina as he walked by. That would not have been funny in April.

Rodriguez finished the season with numbers most players would call a career year--batting .286 with 36 homers and 106 RBIs--but what for him were considered at least borderline disappointing. A .248 average with runners in scoring position had a lot to do with that. He got hot in September after he was moved up to second in the batting order. Hitting in front of Sheffield proved to be much easier than hitting behind him. In 24 games from the No. 2 spot, A Rod drove in 25 runs and hit .301 with a .398 on-base percentage.

"It looked like--and we still see it h-ore time to time I think he's so talented that he tries to do too much," Torre says. "He was enthused by (the move), and it looked like a whole transformation in him. It seemed to make him more consistent in his approach."

Like a true Yankee, A-Rod appears to have saved his best for the fall. If a skirmish with Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek in July (perhaps you've seen the replay once or twice) didn't earn him his pinstripes, his performance against the Twins certainly did.

In Game 2 Rodriguez had a home run, a run-scoring single and an RBI double in the decisive 12th inning of a 7-6 victory. He was even bigger in the clincher, when the Yankees, down 5-1 in the eighth inning, pulled out another come-from-behind thriller.

After Jeter struck out for the fourth time (don't expect to see that again soon) to lead off the 11th, A-Rod smoked a double to the wall in left-center--a shot almost identical to his 12th-inning hit in Game 2. Then he showed why he is considered one of the game's smartest, as well as best, players.

With Twins righthander Kyle Lohse neglecting to use a slide step to the plate and the Twins' bench, suspecting a possible steal, unable to get catcher Pat Borders' attention, A-Rod took off for third base. He had signaled to Sheffield, who was batting, that he was going, so Sheffield half-faked a bunt and A-Rod made it safely without a throw. Then, when Borders couldn't block a slider in the dirt, Rodriguez charged home with the winning run.

Earlier in Game 4, A-Rod showed he has mastered the move from shortstop to third when he made the defensive play of the day. He went to his right to grab a grounder that was well beyond third base, wheeled and threw out Corey Koskie.

It's no wonder he says, "I've played my best baseball in October." The numbers back him up: Going into the ALCS, A-Rod was hitting .361 with four homers and 11 RBIs in his 19 career postseason games.

Of course, those numbers won't mean anything this week. It's all about now for the Yankees and Red Sox, when the little things will be scrutinized as closely as the menu at Legal Sea Foods on a Saturday night. But before A-Rod and his mates venture out too far, a word to the wise: Watch where you dine.