A-Rod slugs, but Yankees lose
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Two more homers by Alex Rodriguez couldn’t stop the struggling New York Yankees from stumbling again.
A-Rod tied the major league record for home runs in April, hitting his 13th and 14th in a 10-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Monday night.
“This obviously is a tough time for us, but it’s a long season. We’ve got to keep working ourselves out of it,” Rodriguez said after the Yankees’ fourth consecutive loss on a five-game road trip that ends tonight.
“We need a win in the worst way. Again, I think hard work and grinding through it and supporting your teammates are the most important things.”
“Against this team with their lineup, you’ve really got to hunker down inning by inning because they’re going to keep coming at you,” Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “They’re never out of the game, and it’s never comfortable.”
The Yankees, swept during a weekend series in Boston, got homers in the second and ninth innings from A-Rod, whose average rose to .400 after going 4 forf5 with three RBIs and four runs scored.
The second-inning solo shot off Casey Fossum (2-1) was the 477th of Rodriguez’s career and extended his hitting streak to 18 games to start this season and 23 in a row dating to last September. The two-run shot off Al Reyes in the ninth gave him 34 RBIs, tied the mark for homers in April set by Albert Pujols in 2006 and broke the A.L. mark of 13 held by Ken Griffey Jr.
“What he’s doing is amazing. I hope he keeps it up,” New York’s Johnny Damon said. “The whole team is rallying behind him. We can’t wait until the next time he comes up.”
But the Yankees, who have been beset with injuries, are off to an 8-10 start. Rodriguez said that makes it more difficult to enjoy what’s he accomplished in the first three weeks of the season.
“It’s easier to say ‘Wow’ when we’re winning games,” he said. “The key is to not get discouraged. We’ve got to just keep the same approach, not try to do too much. If we can keep having that approach over the long haul, we’ll have more wins than losses.”
New York pitchers have given up six runs or more in five straight games and nine of 18 this season.
“You know it’s going to get better. We’re a team. We win together. We lose together,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “Everybody is playing their tails off. You go out there and score eight runs, it certainly should be enough. We just haven’t been able to make it.”