It was a great sports night for me (more on that in a sec) but the best moment of the evening was seeing Alex Rodriguez make Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire look like a fool.
In one of the more head-scratching moves I’ve seen in recent years, Gardenhire not only intentionally walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases for A-Rod (which was crazy enough, given that Alex’s numbers going into last night’s game after a Tex intentional walk were “3-for-3 with a walk, a sacrifice fly, a home run and 10 RBI in five plate appearances,” writes Minnesota columnist Jim Souhan.
Then Gardenhire brought in Matt Guerrier to face A-Rod. Bad move. As Souhan notes:
Rodriguez, in his career, was 4-for-6 with three homers, a double and a walk against Guerrier. It’s hard to hit that well in batting practice or tee ball, much less against a quality big-league reliever.
And the strangest thing is, Gardenhire knew these numbers, and still went with that matchup!
Of course, A-Rod, the guy who killed the Twins in the playoffs last year, with his game-tying homer in Game 2, and his big homer to tie Game 3, destroyed Minnesota – again – with a grand slam. From MLB.com:
“That’s what Alex Rodriguez does,” Teixeira said. “He’s done it so many times in his career. Nineteen grand slams? That’s ridiculous.”
When asked if the free pass to Teixeira gave him with any extra motivation, Rodriguez was quick to respond.
“No question,” he said. “That’s why I hit fourth.”
Rodriguez hasn’t gotten off to a great start so far, but maybe last’s night’s results will be the start of a terrific year for him.
And you know, even I didn’t know that A-Rod had had so many grand slams in his career. But gee, I thought he was totally unclutch and all! Maybe he was just stat-padding with those homers. Showoff!
One other thing – I like that the scorer gave the win to Joba Chamberlain (who struck out the side in the eighth) as opposed to Damaso Marte (who blew the lead.) That type of scorer’s decision should happen more often!
The Yankees’ victory wasn’t the only sporting event to put a smile on my face last night:
* Hideki Matsui hit a three-run homer off Dallas Braden to beat him and the Athletics. “It was a breaking ball,” Braden said about the pitch he threw. “I felt like I almost told him it was coming. He Godzilla’d it right out of the ballpark.”
* Oliver Perez had another Ollity start – as in the opposite of quality – for the Mets. Much gnashing of teeth ensued.
* And, most importantly, my beloved Philadelphia Flyers (I’ve been following them for a whole two days now!) beat the Boston Bruins after being down 0-3 in Game Seven (and 0-3 in the series), to win the game – and the series! Squawker Jon asked me to name a Flyer, and the only name I could come up with was Kate Smith! Nonetheless, I love to see Boston fans miserable. I saw that they threw stuff on the ice – again. Classy!
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