Between Rodriguez and Fate, Yankees Can't Lose

MINNEAPOLIS -- It isn't enough, apparently, to have a $210-million payroll, a $423.5-million offseason boost, a $1.5-billion monument to recession-be-damned greed and a steroid-free (presumably) megastar who finally resembles Mr. October while his actress girlfriend coos at him in the front row beside Jay-Z. No, above and beyond all their built-in advantages in life, the Yankees have to get the friggin' baserunning and bad-umpiring breaks, too.

Which suggests that their pain and professional embarrassment of the last eight years -- the last five in particular, since their infamous choke job against the Red Sox -- is about to fade into another dominant postseason. Sorry to disappoint the legions of pinstripe-haters on our planet, but no one is beating the Yankees this fall. Not Torii Hunter's swagger. Not the inspiration of the late Nick Adenhart. Not Joe Torre, their former manager, or Manny Ramirez, their former nemesis. Not the defending World Series champions, the Phillies, and not even the snow and freezing temperatures in Denver. You might say that the only ones who can topple the Yankees are the Yankees themselves, and you know what? That's not happening, either.

I know this because I'm watching the traditional self-saboteur, Alex Rodriguez, staring down his playoff demons and becoming a beast now that he's been hypnotized into a relaxed mental state by Kate Hudson and teammates who appear to accept him. You know his digits coming into the divisional series with Minnesota: one RBI in his previous 59 postseason at-bats, 0 for his last 27 at-bats with runners on base, 0 for his last 18 with runners in scoring position. Quicker than you can say "The Slugger's Wife'' -- a ghastly 1980s movie in which the ballplayer hits flurries of home runs only when his wife is around and not touring as a singer -- A-Rod punished Twins pitchers for two homers, six RBIs and a .455 batting average in the three-game sweep. Spectacular as his two-run shot was in tying Game 2 in the ninth inning and shaking the new Yankee Stadium from its core, his game-tying solo homer in the seventh Sunday night showed his mates that they could solve the sharp Carl Pavano, who never had pitched so well in stealing $40 million from the Yankees. Not only was Rodriguez grinning after the 4-1 victory, he was speaking like a new man, a revelation for those of us who've been nauseated by him for years.

"I think going back to spring training, I knew I couldn't change all the 0-for-4's and 0-for-5's and all the guys I left on base,'' he said of his postseason woes, which included only three RBIs in his previous 17 games. "I knew I couldn't change that, so, you know, I'm content right now, both on and off the field. And I also knew that I was 34, not 44, and I have an opportunity to do things right both on and off the field.''

He also was sounding like a team guy prepared to deflect all credit, at least publicly, which is a stunning, refreshing metamorphosis from the narcissistic A-Rod who once chased Madonna and posed for weird magazine portraits. "People can say whatever they want about home runs and big hits. I mean, if you don't pitch and you don't defend, you are not going to win,'' he said. "The story of this series was (starting pitchers) CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte, and all three of them were fantastic. You can throw in some good at-bats and throw in some big clutch hits at the end, but only because of their great performances did we have an opportunity to do well.''

Said manager Joe Girardi, whose psychological work with A-Rod in his post-steroids, post-hip-injury period might make him worthier of a Nobel Peace Price than President Obama: "Without Alex, we are not in this situation right now. When players are extremely talented and not pressing, they can do a lot of great things in this game. I know it has been documented and people have talked about Alex's struggles. But I've said all along, I think he's in a great place this year. I really do."

The other reason the Yankees can't lose is because they're getting too much help. They are the last team that needs outside influences in their favor, but as if the baseball gods are having mercy on them, the "Cuzzi Doozy'' of Game 2 was followed by the "Punto Don't Know'' in the series clincher. We saw how the Yankees benefited from a bad call by umpire Phil Cuzzi, who negated a ground-rule double by Joe Mauer by calling the ball foul -- even though it landed safely in fair territory by several inches. While Mauer would single, he'd have scored the go-ahead run when the next two batters followed with singles. Instead, the Twins loaded the bases, only to earn nothing from the rally and hand-feed a story line for Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, who won the game in the 12th with a screeching home run that was clocked at 110 mph and cleared the left-field fence in 2.88 seconds (yes, people keep track of such things). During Game 3, the record crowd of 54,735 -- showing up for the final baseball game at the quirk-daffy Metrodome -- booed every close play and tense ball-strike call. But in the end, one of their own grinding heroes turned out to be his own worst enemy.

Nick Punto is a card-carrying member of the "Piranhas,'' a team nickname coined by Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, of all people. With the Twins trailing 2-1, Punto opened the eighth with a double. The next batter, Denard Span, chopped a ball up the middle that Punto assumed -- never, ever assume -- would get past shortstop Derek Jeter. It didn't, and as Punto was hauling butt around third base, he missed the visual pleas of third-base coach Scott Ullger and kept running. Jeter, born with three eyes, noticed Punto literally sliding on the artificial turf to try to do a quick U-turn. So the Yankees captain threw home to catcher Jorge Posada, who caught Punto in a rundown and flipped the ball to Rodriguez, who made the tag that effectively ended the fun story of the overachieving Twins.

"All I heard was 55,000 people screaming, so I felt like the ball got through," Punto said. "I wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside it and hide. It's embarrassing. That can't happen."

"I wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside it and hide. It's embarrassing. That can't happen."
- Nick Punto "It's very disappointing right now in the clubhouse, as it should be. Nick Punto, no one felt worse than him,'' manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He thought it was a base hit, he didn't pick up Scott, he had his head down -- he just didn't pick up Scotty rounding third -- and Jeter makes a play, and there you have it. Nicky was flying and put his head down and was running -- and you've got to keep your head up, and that's what happens, so he feels pretty bad about it.''

They couldn't blame the ump this time, as they had Friday. The Cuzzi blunder launched a barrage of media calls for expanded use of instant replay, which currently only is used to determine homers. I agree: Expand replay, immediately. Certainly, it should be used on fair-foul calls, especially when umps complain that it's sometimes hard to differentiate on bang-bang plays down the line. Paging Bud Selig, Clueless Bud Selig! "It's not the (question) that I really want to get into at this point," crew chief Tim Tschida said. Gardenhire has introduced the idea of a manager throwing a red flag, similar to the process used by NFL coaches, when he wants to challenge a ruling.

"I've said all along that I want a red flag," he said. "If you use it and you're wrong, you don't get to use it the rest of the game. If you use it and you're right, you get your red flag back and that would save a lot of money (for ejections)."

When asked about the red flag, Girardi responded like a man who had benefited from a bad call. "That might be dangerous with that red flag. I just think it really breaks the rhythm of the game,'' he said. "You know, during the course of the year, everything is usually going to balance out. In the playoffs it's different, and how many red flags would you be allowed to throw? The rhythm is important to your pitchers, and I just think it would really hurt that.''

Keep in mind that the Twins did plenty to blow Game 2 on their own. They stranded 17 runners. They had the bases loaded with none out after the Cuzzi Doozy and couldn't score. Their closer, Joe Nathan, blew a lead. "There's a guy sitting over in the umpires dressing room right now that feels terrible," Tschida said Friday night. He shouldn't. The Twins lost this series on their own between Punto and Carlos Gomez, whose baserunning blunder also hurt the cause.

When gifts are being handed to The Franchise That Has Everything, tell me: Who's going to beat them? How are the Yankees going to lose this time, a year after missing the postseason as the rest of baseball chuckled? In spending $243.5 million on Sabathia and Burnett, Hank and Hal Steinbrenner successfully shored up a starting rotation that had broken down in recent years. In Mariano Rivera, they have a closer for the ages who shows few signs of deteriorating at 39 and picked up his eighth career postseason-series-clinching save -- this on the day that closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a series for the Red Sox against the rampaging Angels. And the 1-through-9 batting order? "Up and down, there's no room to breathe," Twins first baseman Michael Cuddyer said. "That's why they spent all that money in the offseason, for this time of the year.''

Their series with the Angels will be fun in that it matches the two best teams in baseball. Having shed their losing ways against the Red Sox, who had knocked them out of the playoffs the last four times the teams had met, the Halos at least can dream of returning to the World Series for the first time since winning it in 2002. Perhaps they can be competitive, extend the American League championship series to six games. But with an unreliable closer in Brian Fuentes and without the relentless clout of the Yankees lineup, the Angels won't be going to Disneyland next month, even if Hunter is smelling blood. "I told you guys earlier: It's going to be a different scene this time," the team leader said after an unexpected sweep.

The series may be short if manager Mike Scioscia and his staff don't find a way to slow down A-Rod the way, say, Torre and the Dodgers slowed down Albert Pujols. But if you intentionally walk him, you have to face Hideki Matsui and then Posada, who homered for the go-ahead run Sunday after whining about Girardi's decision to use Jose Molina as Burnett's personal catcher in Game 2. "It doesn't change the way I think about the moves. I am happy that I was in there and we got it done today,'' said Posada, who triggered a rare controversy in a remarkably calm season in the Bronx.

I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more of A-Rod crossing home plate, which means we'll be seeing a lot more of Kate Hudson. "It's exciting," Rodriguez said. "We were very disappointed last year when we went home, but ownership got us some good players. We came out and played like a team, like a group of brothers."

Said teammate Nick Swisher, scolding the media: "Maybe this will put all that other (expletive) to rest. You guys should write an awful lot of good things about him tomorrow morning.''

We are. About A-Rod and the Yankees.

"I know a lot of things get said about their payroll and all that stuff, but the bottom line is, they're just great baseball players,'' Gardenhire said. "And aside from all the other stuff, they are very, very talented. That's why they make a lot of money, because they deserve it because they've played the game for a long time and they get it done and know how to get it done. And they play with class. So I tip my hat to them. They know how to finish people off.''

They'll finish off the Angels and Dodgers, too. Like it or not, it's their year to win the World Series, as it was 26 times before. That's not to say the rest of us have to like it, of course.