Indians Deny Alex Rodriguez 600th Homer; Rays Up Next

CLEVELAND -- Alex Rodriguez went homerless for the seventh game in a row, so Major League Baseball has to ship another batch of those specially marked baseballs to Tampa Bay.

Because Rodriguez is still one home run shy of 600 for his career.

"I guess we'll talk about it again tomorrow," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Thursday night. "Unless something happens overnight."

The wait lasted four games in Cleveland, where Rodriguez went 3-for-17. He had two 0-for-4 nights, and in the fourth game of a four-game series had six plate appearances and was 1-for-4 (with a walk and a sacrifice fly).

Three times Thursday night Rodriguez came to the plate with the bases loaded -- in the third, seventh and eighth. He hit a sacrifice fly, singled and struck out swinging.

The last at-bat was the most difficult to watch, as Rodriguez worked Jess Todd to a 3-2 count, then went down swinging on an 83-mph curveball.



It was that kind of weird night and weird game at Progressive Field. The Indians walked 12 Yankees in the three-hour, 58-minute game. The Yankees scored 11 runs and left 14 on base. And Indians third baseman Andy Marte pitched a one-two-three ninth, striking out Nick Swisher.

"I now have a new most embarrassing moment,'' Swisher said.

Swisher pitched a scoreless inning for the Yankees last season, so he cracked up that he and Marte have the same ERA.

"He had some run on his stuff," he said, presumably half-serious. "I was sitting on the breaking ball. He gassed me upstairs."

Gassed him at 87 miles per hour.

"There were a few strange things tonight," Girardi said.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez had six chances to hit his 600th home run -- which makes 30 official at-bats and 33 appearances since he hit No. 599. By most accounts, Rodriguez had a good night, with three RBI (one on a sacrifice fly) and a walk. But the fact that he went homerless meant he had to answer more questions about 600, all of which he basically shrugged off.

"It's been great," Rodriguez said of the week without a home run. "We've been playing good baseball, winning baseball. I think the thing to remember is when I hit this nothing is going to change. We're in the middle of a pennant race and we're just trying to play good baseball."

In a real sense, Rodriguez is merely repeating history. When he went for No. 500 in 2007 he had a streak of 22 at-bats without a hit and was 2-for-28 before hitting a home run. It took him eight days to get from 499 to 500, and Friday in Tampa Bay will be the eighth day he goes for 600.

"I feel good about the way I'm swinging the bat," Rodriguez said.

He should. In 24 July games, Rodriguez has 31 RBI. And he will be the seventh player in major league history to hit 600 home runs, though none have taken as many at-bats as Rodriguez after 599. Willie Mays needed 24, which is his uniform number and the previous long.

"I'm not going anywhere," Rodriguez said.

"We all hoped it would happen here, but it didn't," Girardi said. "So we move on to the next city."