Alex Rodriguez vs. Phillies: Stats, Highlights, Reaction from Spring Training
March 4, 2015 · Adam Wells · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Alex Rodriguez‘s long-awaited, much-anticipated 2015 debut for the New York Yankees happened on Wednesday at George Steinbrenner Field in a spring training game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He had three at-bats, going 1-for-2 with a walk before being pulled in the sixth inning.
It’s going to be easy for fans and analysts to overreact to Rodriguez’s performance Wednesday, but it’s crucial to remember that he hasn’t faced live pitching in a game situation since the end of 2013 and is 39 years old.
Another aspect to consider is Rodriguez’s nerves. He admitted to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com on Tuesday that there were going to be some butterflies.
“I’ll be a little nervous, for sure,” Rodriguez said. “I haven’t been in front of our fans for a long time. I’m excited about that. I have some challenges ahead.”
As you can see, per SportsCenter, Rodriguez was in the lineup for the first time since September 2013 and hitting second behind newly acquired Didi Gregorius:
As far as all of the baggage with Rodriguez goes, Yankees manager Joe Girardi told Hoch that the team is going to root for him to succeed because he’s part of the unique baseball family and it’s in everyone’s best interest for him to play well:
Some people are going to look at it that he was caught and he paid his time, and now he’s back, and he’s a Yankee, and we’re going to cheer for him. Some people are going to say, “You know what? I might have a hard time cheering for him.” And some people are just fans, and they fall in love with a player, and no matter what they do, it doesn’t matter.
On the field, as you can tell by the stat line, there wasn’t much to Rodriguez’s performance. He received a mix of cheers and boos from the fans in his first at-bat, swinging at the first two pitches against Kevin Slowey before lining a soft single into left field, via America’s Pregame:
Rodriguez’s bat looked slower on those first two pitches, which the YES Network telecast (h/t Gershon Rabinowitz of YES) had at 91 mph:
Here is a view of the single, in case you forgot what it looks like when Rodriguez swings a bat:
You’ll notice in the video that there were no boos after Rodriguez reached base. That has to be his plan this season. There are always going to be fans who root against him because of what’s happened in the past or because they’ve just decided to jump on the hater bandwagon.
Yet, as long as Rodriguez is hitting home runs at a reasonable rate with a solid average and on-base percentage, fans in New York likely aren’t going to care about anything that happened in the past. Winning and performing well can gloss over a lot of things.
Any chance to take a shot at Rodriguez will be used. Just look at this headline from the New York Daily News after he went hitless against a pitching machine in an intrasquad game on Tuesday, via Deadspin on Twitter:
The second at-bat was much less dramatic. With Gregorius on first base, Rodriguez hit a grounder to shortstop Freddy Galvis, who flipped the ball to second base for the force out to end the third inning.
It was the first game back for Rodriguez following a long layoff that had many different layers to it than a normal layoff. He is never going to escape the shadow he created in the past, but he is now going to move forward because there’s nothing else to do.
Rodriguez didn’t provide a memorable moment in this game to make anyone think he will be playing at an MVP level again, but that’s not what it was about. All he had to do was step in a batter’s box without falling on his sword to make this a successful return. The base hit was just icing on the cake.
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