An A-Bomb! For A-Rod!

I'd like to think it was my words spurring the Yankees to action today, but perhaps it was just some good, old-fashioned baseball juice from the game's biggest performance enhancer, Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod's smooth swing sent the first pitch he faced into the left field seats (that's not the gimme section of the new park, folks) to drive in three runs, get him some slaps on the butt and land the Yankees with a 4-0 victory.

And this man is infectious, at least enough to have CC Sabathia pitch his best game of the year and to keep the bullpen from blowing the win. The rest of the team was still sputtering, but one run wins a game, and A-Rod is always a contender to get that one run with one swing. The win broke a five-game losing streak for New York.

By the way, I read part of Selena Robert's book on Rodriguez tonight. I find it intriguing but will not give my full synopsis on the situation until I've read the text. But I'm a supporter of paying attention to what's happening today; I wasn't pining for A-Rod to come back, and if he goes lame tomorrow, I won't cry (you have to win with what you have). And as much as I wish the Yankees could play without him, apparently he was the boost they needed for tonight. So let's ride him for a while and not think about other things.

A final word about the Manny situation: I say kudos to Manny for 'fessing up and taking the sentence like a man. Whether he did it knowingly or not, whether he's trying to get back quicker for the season or not, whether he's smart or not, whatever. I like to see a guy admit it, take the pay cut, sit it out and come back for another day.