A-Rod Earns Another Stadium Curtain Call

[irish_blue69]

(AP) - The Yankee Stadium fans aren't booing A-Rod anymore. Alex Rodriguez homered twice and drove in three runs Friday night, earning a curtain call for the second straight game in New York's 8-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
The reigning AL MVP has been the focus of the home fans' derision for much of the season, fighting the perception that he can't come through in the clutch.
He was in a 1-for-24 slump before getting three hits Thursday against Detroit, including a home run.
After his second homer against the Twins, manager Joe Torre told the star third baseman to walk up the dugout steps and acknowledge the fans' cheers.
"Unless Joe tells me to go, it's just not my nature," Rodriguez said. "I don't feel real comfortable doing that."
But it's got to feel better than being booed.
In other AL games, it was: Boston 2, Toronto 1; Detroit 9, Los Angeles 0; Tampa Bay 2, Seattle 1; Kansas City 7, Chicago 5; Cleveland 7, Texas 2; and Oakland 5, Baltimore 4.
Rodriguez homered in the second inning off Carlos Silva (8-13) to put the Yankees ahead, had a bases-loaded single in the four-run fifth, then hit his 29th homer of the season in the seventh against Matt Guerrier. It was just the third multihomer game of the year for A-Rod, the first since July 2.
"Before it seemed like he was just seeing the ball really late, wasn't really sure what was going on," New York's Johnny Damon said. "Today it seemed like he saw the pitches out of the pitcher's hand."
Cory Lidle (3-2) allowed two hits and two walks in six scoreless innings. After hitless relief by Mike Myers, Brian Bruney and Octavio Dotel, T.J. Beam gave up an RBI double to Justin Morneau in a two-hit ninth.
New York remained a season-high eight games ahead of Boston in the AL East. Minnesota, which lost for the fourth time in five games, stayed a half-game behind Chicago in the AL wild-card race.

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editoria...ck=&ch=sp&s=ml