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Rodriguez homers twice as Yankees rout Mariners

Sep 6, 2007 - 3:49 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Alex Rodriguez's ankle may have been barking, but it apparently did not affect his ability to hit home runs.

Rodriguez sparked an eight-run seventh-inning comeback with two blasts in the frame as the New York Yankees padded their cushion in the wild card race with a 10-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

The Yankees (78-62) lead the Mariners (74-64) by three games in the wild card standings.

"There's not much time left (in the season)," Rodriguez said. "I guarantee you that if this was April or May I probably would have taken the day, no question. But every game is so important."

Rodriguez injured his right ankle in a collision with Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre on Tuesday and had a limp that concerned the Yankees enough to send him for an MRI. The results of the tests were not available for his first two plate appearances but, in a strange coincidence, were announced in the seventh.

Moments after it was revealed that Rodriguez had a sprained and bruised right ankle, he sent a 3-2 pitch from Jarrod Washburn (7-13) over the left-center field fence. It was his 47th home run of the season, one shy of his total from the 2005 season and following his blast, the Yankees started their rally.

"Tying the game in that situation was almost like getting a one-run lead," Rodriguez said. "Simply because our bullpen situation favored us and being at home."

"When he does things like he did tonight and last night, it's certainly hard to ignore," New York manager Joe Torre said. "Last night, we had a couple of guys with great days and everybody talks about the home run Alex hits."

In the original lineup, Rodriguez was the starting third baseman. But at 5:15 his usual routine was interupted when he went for his MRI at nearby Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

When he returned, Rodriguez determined he was unable to play the field. And after the game, he estimated he was feeling about 60 percent.

Rodriguez is also unsure if he can play third in the series opener at Kansas City Friday, but considering the nature of the game, he was not going to miss Wednesday's contest.

"Coming back from the hospital, I felt like I was probably almost a 75-percent chance I wasn't going to play because I got here an hour before the game, 55 minutes before the game," Rodriguez said. "I said I definitely couldn't play the field. I kind of put it to (Torre), he put it back on me and then went out and did a couple of zig zags (running exercises) with Geno (trainer Gene Monahan) and gave it a shot."

"I felt we could take out him of the game, DHing is like pinch hitting him four or five times," Torre said. "It's something we can at least keep track of."

After Rodriguez's first blast, Robinson Cano kept it going when he reached on an error by second baseman Jose Lopez. That chased Washburn and the Mariners brought in lefthander George Sherrill, who issued consecutive one-out walks to Jason Giambi and Wilson Betemit that loaded the bases.

After Jorge Posada was announced as a pinch hitter for Jose Molina, the Mariners brought in Sean Green. Like Sherrill, Green was unable to throw strikes, walking Posada on five pitches.

Green was replaced by Eric O'Flaherty, who recorded the second out but gave up two more runs. Johnny Damon beat out a potential double-play grounder and ran on contact on Melky Cabrera's RBI single into right field - easily getting to third.

The Yankees were hardly finished as Derek Jeter hit a two-run double against Brandan Morrow. That brought up Rodriguez, who equaled his home run total from two years ago when he sent Morrow's 2-1 offering into the left field seats.

It was his seventh multi-homer game of the season, 51st of his career. Rodriguez also hit his 512th career home run, tying Eddie Matthews and Ernie Banks for 17th on the all-time list.

Rodriguez also hit two home runs in the same inning for the first time in his career. He became the first Yankee to accomplish the feat since Cliff Johnson did it in the eighth inning at Toronto on June 30, 1977.

Besides tying Banks and Matthews, Rodriguez also moved past Mel Ott on the all-time list and became the third player this season to hit two home runs in an inning. The others were Detroit's Magglio Ordonez and San Francisco's Bengie Molina.

"I can't relate to it," Jeter said of Rodriguez's monster season. "It's unbelievable. I haven't seen anything like it in all my years playing. It's not that easy."

After dropping the series opener, the Yankees tagged Seattle's bullpen for 15 runs and 15 hits over the final two games. The Yankees did that despite the Mariners having an 11-man bullpen due to September callups.

"We check with them everyday," Seattle manager John McLaren said. "On the sheet today was one of the few times that we had everyone available. So we just need to do a better job of throwing strikes."

The 32-minute inning made a winner out of rookie Joba Chamberlain, (1-0) who tossed a perfect seventh for his first career victory.

Chamberlain's first appearance in six days came after fellow rookie Phil Hughes allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. He struck out six and walked two and threw 97 pitches in what may have been his finest outing since returning from the disabled list a month ago.

"It's one thing to be aggressive with your fastball, (but) you also need a curve," Hughes said. "I was aggressive with my fastball, but I also threw some good changeups, good curveballs and good sliders."

Raul Ibanez drove in both runs for the Mariners with a two-run home run in the third and Washburn made it stand up until the seventh.

He gave up a solo home run to Molina in the third and a double to Molina in the sixth. The 32-year-old lefthander came in with the lowest ERA against the Yankees among any active pitcher with at least 65 innings.

He also worked out of trouble in the sixth when he stranded Molina at third and was one strike away from retiring Rodriguez. But the home run and the second error by Lopez opened the floodgates.

"I gave us a chance to win," Washburn said. "It's a powerful offense - the best in the game. It's a tough one for us."

"It was a big game for us and we didn't get it done," McLaren said.

Seattle lost for the 10th time in 11 games and also had a pair of calls go against them involving superstar Ichiro Suzuki.

Ichiro was called out trying to steal second in the third but replays showed Jeter missed the tag and was called out in the fifth although replays appeared to show that he beat Betemit's throw from third by a step.

Chamberlain, who had been idle since Thursday due to a two-game suspension for throwing at Boston's Kevin Youkilis, easily retired the side in the seventh. Edwar Ramirez hurled the eighth and Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth in a non-save situation to finish the game.