A-Rod, Yankees suffer power outage at plate

A-Rod, Yankees suffer power outage at plate

Jae C Hong/AP

Getting hit by pitch is a good plate appearance for Alex Rodriguez these days, as he has hit just seven homers and says he’s happy just to get on base.

Has Alex Rodriguez become the highest-paid singles hitter in baseball?

His two-home run game nine days ago against the Royals was supposed to propel him on a hot streak, the one he predicted was coming one night earlier.

Instead, since then he hasnt gotten himself past first base with a swing of his bat.

A-Rod is hitting .292 (7-for-24) with one RBI and no extra-base hits during the first six games of the Yankees road trip, which continues Friday night in Detroit. The Bombers saw plenty of power from the likes of Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson during their 4-2 swing through Oakland and Anaheim, but Rodriguez has appeared content with his think-small approach.

You cant chase home runs, A-Rod said. You have to chase good at-bats.

Its difficult to argue with that premise, but when Rodriguez has had good at-bats throughout his career, extra-base hits 636 home runs and 500 doubles, to be exact have been a standard outcome.

On Tuesday, A-Rod reached base four times, hitting three singles and getting hit by a pitch. It was a solid night for both his batting average and on-base percentage, but he didnt score in the 5-1 loss to the Angels.

Derek Jeter likes to say that his job is to get on base and let the guys behind him drive him in. As the leadoff hitter, that makes perfect sense. Rodriguez seems to have adapted the same philosophy, only the Yankees are paying him $ 29 million this season to be the guy driving in those runs, not the one setting the table.

If I get a night like (Tuesday) where Im on base four times, Ill take that all day long, said Rodriguez, who has seven home runs in 49 games. That is, to me, the equivalent of hitting a couple of doubles or a home run. At the end of the day, those guys behind me are very talented, and theyre going to be driving in runs.

Theres only one problem with A-Rods theory: a home run would have put at least one run on the board, something the Yankees struggled to do in the loss to Dan Haren and the Angels.

Cano, Teixeira and the rest of the lineup figure to come through plenty of times this season and prove A-Rod right, but isnt he supposed to be the guy driving in Jeter and Granderson?

I think overall, when you trust each other, thats when your offense operates best, Rodriguez said. At the end of the day, whoevers hitting behind whether you walk once, twice the more you get on base, eventually those guys are going to come up with a big hit. Youve just got to keep giving them opportunities.

Thats sort of a less-is-more approach.

For A-Rod, less has meant less this season. His .424 slugging percentage is 140 points lower than his career average, ranking him seventh among the eight Yankees who have played at least 40 games. Only Russell Martins .333 mark is worse than Rodriguezs among Yankees regulars.

Rodriguez insists hes not concerned about his lack of home runs The only thing Im worried about is wins but his RBI total is equally alarming.

Rodriguez enters the weekend with 19 RBI, sixth on the team and only one ahead of leadoff man Jeter. Despite having the third-most opportunities on the team, A-Rod has a dreadful .167 average with runners in scoring position, contributing to his low RBI total.

Rodriguez is the first to admit that his performance in such situations particularly his 1-for-9 effort with the bases loaded is not what he expects from himself. Its not anxiety in those situations, he said, but rather an over-aggressive approach as he tries to crush and do damage with each swing.

Forgetting the fact that hes on pace to hit 23 home runs, which would be a career-low in a non-injury season, Rodriguez is on pace to drive in 62 runs over a full season, the same total he had in 99 games last season.

Joe Girardi has said repeatedly that he doesnt get caught up in players batting averages or home run totals as long as theyre being productive.

I wouldnt call him just a singles hitter, the manager said. Hes got seven home runs and were 50 games in, so that equates to over 20 home runs during the course of the season. The big thing for me is production; scoring runs and driving in runs. Thats what we need him to do.