Yankees 4, Braves 3, 12 innings
Deaf to Boos, Rodriguez Finally Hears The Cheers
By DAVID PICKER
Published: June 29, 2006
Alex Rodriguez must have heard the boos when he failed to reach
base in the 1st and 10th innings, and again in the 11th when he
made an error. Or did he? After yesterday's game, Rodriguez said
his hearing was going bad, likening himself to a swimmer with
clogged ears.
But the deafening cheers that swept through Yankee Stadium were
nearly impossible to block out after Rodriguez hit a two-run homer
in the 12th that gave the Yankees a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
"Yeah, I guess," Rodriguez said when asked if he heard the fans'
reaction as he rounded the bases, then tossed his batting helmet
high into the air just before crossing home plate, where he was
greeted by teammates who high-fived him, rubbed his head and patted
him on the backside.
The Yankees won two of their three games with the Braves, and they
have prevailed in 9 of their last 11 series. More important, they
remained on the heels of the Boston Red Sox, who lead the East by
three and a half games.
"I was happy," Rodriguez said of his 16th homer this season and his
100th as a Yankee, a towering blast that landed behind the visitors'
bullpen in left field and enabled the Yankees to come from behind
after the Braves scored a run in the top of the inning. "Like I said,
I needed that."
Rodriguez entered the 12th inning in a 2-for-18 slump and on the
receiving end of the fans' ire. After going 0 for 4 during the
Yankees' 5-2 loss to the Braves on Tuesday, he said that the incessant
booing was making it harder for him to produce.
Rodriguez is an easy target for fans because he will make more than
$25 million this season. He is the American League's reigning most
valuable player, but he has been unable to shake a reputation for
failing to hit in the clutch.
So criticism even came from the YES analyst David Justice, who after
Tuesday's loss said that the statistics showed that Rodriguez was not
the top player the Yankees would want batting with the score 2-2 in the
seventh.
"Alex has gone from town to town, and there's been just resentment
all over the league for him because of how much money he makes,"
Manager Joe Torre said before the game. "And nobody ever feels that
anybody's worth this money. Like, you know, he went in there and held
somebody hostage to get the money. Somebody made a choice to give it
to him. And it's just something that he has to live with."
Rodriguez seems to be living with it in his own way. As fans stood
and cheered after his game-winning hit, he did not make a curtain call.
The same fans had booed him after he committed his 13th error of the
season in the 11th.
"The fans love him to death right now," Torre said. "That's their
privilege."
The fans had little to love in the top of the 12th, when the Braves
took a 3-2 lead after Scott Proctor, the fifth of six Yankees pitchers,
surrendered a one-out bases-empty homer to Marcus Giles. Proctor's
95-mile-an-hour fastball found the heart of the plate and was drilled
over the left-field fence for the Braves' first run since the sixth
inning.
Proctor looked good moments earlier. He entered in bottom of the 11th
inning with the bases loaded and two outs and induced a pop-up by
Wilson Betemit to end the threat. Ron Villone (1-1) relieved Proctor
and induced a lineout to shortstop with the bases loaded and two outs
to pick up the victory.
Asked if he was the second-most-relieved person in the stadium after
Rodriguez's homer, Proctor said, "I think I was the most."
The Yankees were down to their final two outs when Jorge Sosa (2-10)
walked Jason Giambi, who was replaced by pinch-runner Kevin Reese.
Rodriguez was the next batter, and he took two balls, a strike and
a ball before going from goat to star.
"He's going to be fine," Derek Jeter said of Rodriguez.
"Everyone struggles at times. He knows how to hit."
For the first eight innings, the game was a pitchers' duel between
Chien-Ming Wang and John Smoltz.
Wang gave up the first of the two earned runs he surrendered in the
fourth inning, when Edgar Renteria scored from third base on Andruw
Jones's double. The Braves took a 2-0 lead when Wang allowed three
consecutive singles with two outs in the sixth inning, the last of
them, by Brian McCann, scoring Chipper Jones from third.
Wang surrendered seven hits in eight innings, striking out two batters
while walking one. "Wang did an outstanding job," Jeter said.
Smoltz was pitching for the first time since leaving his previous start,
on June 23, during the second inning with a strained right groin muscle.
He showed few lingering effects, scattering six hits over seven innings.
The earned run he surrendered came in the sixth inning, when Rodriguez
hit a ground ball that bounced off Smoltz's glove. It was fielded by
Giles at second base as Melky Cabrera scored to cut the Braves' lead to
2-1. Rodriguez was out at first.
Braves General Manager John Schuerholz said that Smoltz would not be
traded after Smoltz raised that possibility in conversations with
members of the news media. But if the Braves continue to lose at a
dizzying clip, Schuerholz's thinking might change. So, in a way,
Smoltz may have been auditioning for his next employer. The Yankees
could certainly use a pitcher of his caliber down the stretch, as could
Boston and Detroit, the organization in which Smoltz's minor league
career began in 1986.
The Yankees still trailed by 2-1 with one out in the eighth when Giambi
hit a bases-empty homer off Ken Ray, who relieved Smoltz. The ball
caromed off the front of the upper deck in right field, giving the
Yankees new life.
"Jason's been swinging the bat very well," Jeter said. "It seems like
everything he hits is a home run."
The Yankees went to Mariano Rivera with the score tied at 2-2 to start
the ninth. Rivera allowed one hit in two innings, striking out two.
The fans, sensing something special would happen, cheered Rivera as he
induced a groundout to end the 10th inning. At the end, something
special did happen. But this time, Rodriguez received the loudest
applause.
The Braves have one of the most porous bullpens in the National League,
yet three of their relievers held the Yankees without a hit between the
9th and 11th innings.
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