Boston on "TILT"??
Yankees show restraint as A-Rod is plunked
<DL class=byline>Ken Davidoff <DD>10:52 PM EDT, July 26, 2008 </DD></DL>BOSTON
Alex Rodriguez nearly pirouetted all the way from home plate to the mound, so extreme did his pain look after taking a Craig Hansen fastball to his left arm.
In the Yankees' dugout, however, not a creature was stirring.
The players stood atop the dugout in the top of the eighth inning. They would've been ready, had there been a bench-clearing brawl. But they didn't initiate one.
It's true that A-Rod will never win the popularity contest in his own clubhouse, but this stony silence spoke more to the HBP's context. To the reality that Joba Chamberlain, who appears oddly determined to send Kevin Youkilis into retirement, has increased the stakes in The Rivalry.
"I don't know. You'd have to ask them," Johnny Damon said of Hansen's intent after the Yankees' 10-3 victory at Fenway Park. "But we understand it's part of baseball. We understand Youk's not happy.
"It's part of the game. Both teams play hard, and we try to play the game the right way. Unfortunately, Youk's gotten a lot of pitches up and in on him. Unfortunately, Alex got hit."
With their second straight victory over Boston, the Yankees caught up to the Red Sox in the loss column. Damaso Marte, having just arrived from Pittsburgh, overpowered David Ortiz in the seventh inning. Xavier Nady started in leftfield, walked and scored a run. Jarrod Washburn looks likely to join and strengthen the Yankees' starting rotation in the next few days.
Life is good for these Yankees, who are 8-0 since the All-Star break. But even as they humiliated the swooning Red Sox, they had to deal with a new reality: payback. Or at the least, the perception of it.
Chamberlain threw a high-and-tight pitch to Youkilis on Friday night in the Yankees' 1-0 victory. It marked the fourth time, as Mike Lowell noted, that Chamberlain has dusted Youkilis. And Joba hasn't been a major-leaguer for even a full year yet.
Not surprisingly, Damon, unfailingly honest, stood out as a lone voice of reason. Everyone else went into denial mode.
"I have no idea," said A-Rod, who wore a bandage in the area above his left elbow and proclaimed himself healthy. "I'm thinking about winning the game."
"I don't think so," Joe Girardi said.
"He didn't throw strikes all inning," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said accurately of Hansen, a Glen Cove and St. John's product. "The first pitch he threw to A-Rod was a slider, a foot and a half outside."
Hansen himself said: "No. I couldn't hit my spots all day. My location wasn't that well. What can you do? I didn't have that great control today."
The righthander lasted only two-thirds of an inning, walking three and unleashing a wild pitch in addition to hitting A-Rod. So perhaps it is believable that A-Rod got hit by accident.
Yet ... there was Damon, smirking, setting his foot into waters where others wouldn't tread. Not to mention plate umpire Derryl Cousins, who issued a warning to both benches.
"This is a great rivalry," Damon said. "Both teams are going to go out and play hard. It should be over. It's nothing we're going to talk about. We know it's part of the game.
"What we're thinking about tomorrow is hopefully going out there and doing better against Lester this time out."
Remember, for so many years, Red Sox pitchers threw at Yankees hitters without provocation. And the only person earning a pinstriped paycheck who ever expressed a remote interest in doing anything about it was Roger Clemens.
In Joe Girardi's kingdom, with Chamberlain throwing ace-caliber heat and not being afraid to wield it as a weapon, the Yankees have become as much bullies as bullied. Undoubtedly, the fans are just fine with that change.
But the trade-off is moments like yesterday's, when you wonder whether A-Rod took one for the team. And whether it will impact his performance at all, and therefore the team's chances at a 14th straight trip to the playoffs.
Yankees show restraint as A-Rod is plunked
<DL class=byline>Ken Davidoff <DD>10:52 PM EDT, July 26, 2008 </DD></DL>BOSTON
Alex Rodriguez nearly pirouetted all the way from home plate to the mound, so extreme did his pain look after taking a Craig Hansen fastball to his left arm.
In the Yankees' dugout, however, not a creature was stirring.
The players stood atop the dugout in the top of the eighth inning. They would've been ready, had there been a bench-clearing brawl. But they didn't initiate one.
It's true that A-Rod will never win the popularity contest in his own clubhouse, but this stony silence spoke more to the HBP's context. To the reality that Joba Chamberlain, who appears oddly determined to send Kevin Youkilis into retirement, has increased the stakes in The Rivalry.
"I don't know. You'd have to ask them," Johnny Damon said of Hansen's intent after the Yankees' 10-3 victory at Fenway Park. "But we understand it's part of baseball. We understand Youk's not happy.
"It's part of the game. Both teams play hard, and we try to play the game the right way. Unfortunately, Youk's gotten a lot of pitches up and in on him. Unfortunately, Alex got hit."
With their second straight victory over Boston, the Yankees caught up to the Red Sox in the loss column. Damaso Marte, having just arrived from Pittsburgh, overpowered David Ortiz in the seventh inning. Xavier Nady started in leftfield, walked and scored a run. Jarrod Washburn looks likely to join and strengthen the Yankees' starting rotation in the next few days.
Life is good for these Yankees, who are 8-0 since the All-Star break. But even as they humiliated the swooning Red Sox, they had to deal with a new reality: payback. Or at the least, the perception of it.
Chamberlain threw a high-and-tight pitch to Youkilis on Friday night in the Yankees' 1-0 victory. It marked the fourth time, as Mike Lowell noted, that Chamberlain has dusted Youkilis. And Joba hasn't been a major-leaguer for even a full year yet.
Not surprisingly, Damon, unfailingly honest, stood out as a lone voice of reason. Everyone else went into denial mode.
"I have no idea," said A-Rod, who wore a bandage in the area above his left elbow and proclaimed himself healthy. "I'm thinking about winning the game."
"I don't think so," Joe Girardi said.
"He didn't throw strikes all inning," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said accurately of Hansen, a Glen Cove and St. John's product. "The first pitch he threw to A-Rod was a slider, a foot and a half outside."
Hansen himself said: "No. I couldn't hit my spots all day. My location wasn't that well. What can you do? I didn't have that great control today."
The righthander lasted only two-thirds of an inning, walking three and unleashing a wild pitch in addition to hitting A-Rod. So perhaps it is believable that A-Rod got hit by accident.
Yet ... there was Damon, smirking, setting his foot into waters where others wouldn't tread. Not to mention plate umpire Derryl Cousins, who issued a warning to both benches.
"This is a great rivalry," Damon said. "Both teams are going to go out and play hard. It should be over. It's nothing we're going to talk about. We know it's part of the game.
"What we're thinking about tomorrow is hopefully going out there and doing better against Lester this time out."
Remember, for so many years, Red Sox pitchers threw at Yankees hitters without provocation. And the only person earning a pinstriped paycheck who ever expressed a remote interest in doing anything about it was Roger Clemens.
In Joe Girardi's kingdom, with Chamberlain throwing ace-caliber heat and not being afraid to wield it as a weapon, the Yankees have become as much bullies as bullied. Undoubtedly, the fans are just fine with that change.
But the trade-off is moments like yesterday's, when you wonder whether A-Rod took one for the team. And whether it will impact his performance at all, and therefore the team's chances at a 14th straight trip to the playoffs.
