Yankees rally 'round A-Rod

The Guru
Contributing Writer

Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster certainly, pardon the pun, injected himself into the A-Rod drama Sunday night when he drilled a 92-mile-per-hour fastball into the elbow of Alex Rodriguez.

In what appeared to be an intentional act, for whatever the reason, one would have to admit the beaning did fire up a Yankees team that was losing 2-0 at the time. New York went on to win 9-6.

Rodriguez said,
“Whether you like me or hate me, what’s wrong is wrong. It was unprofessional and silly. That today brought us together. [Manager] Joe Giradi's reaction was amazing. Every single one of my teammates came up to me and said hit a bomb to walk it off.”

A-Rod did just that as he led off the sixth inning with a long homer to deep center igniting a four run inning. "It was awesome. I was pretty excited. It was the ultimate payback.”

Joe Giardi, who was ejected from the game, didn't mince any words when it came to Dempster's actions.
“Everyone knows it’s intentional. You can't start throwing at people. Lives -- people have had concussions. Lives are changed by getting hit by pitches. Whether I agree with everything that's going on, you do not throw at people and you don't take the law into your own hands. You don't do that. We're going to skip the judicial system? It's 'My Cousin Vinny.'"

If Dempster's beaning was sending some sort of message concerning PED's and A-Rod's appeal of his 211-game suspension Girardi said,
"Ryan Dempster has been a player rep and he’s been very involved in the union, and he knows this is what they decided to do. You can’t change it and just take your potshots. And you’d have to have your head in the sand with the comments that have come from the other side not to know that something might be up.”

Outfielder Brett Gardner, who hit a three-run triple to give the Yankees the lead, laughed when told of Dempster’s "just pitching inside comments" comments.
“I think if anybody buys that, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Of course they’re going to deny it. ... I’m not sure how I would feel if he was on another team, but Alex is my teammate. I’m glad to have him back.”

Sunday night's winning pitcher CC Sabathia said,
"I think Alex did the best retaliation by going deep. There is not much more to say about that. A guy drills you and then you go deep off of him. We get the win. He gives up seven. What can you say?"

Giardi said he hopes Dempster gets suspended,
"Come on, I'll be really disappointed if he's not suspended where he misses a start. They have a lot of days off and you could finagle something, like if he took the suspension tomorrow if he got suspended he wouldn't miss a start. It has to cost him something."

MLB said in a statement Monday that it was reviewing the play.

When asked if Dempster should appeal a possible suspension, Rodriguez joked,
“I’ve got an attorney I can recommend. I’m the wrong guy to be asking about a suspension."


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