Alex Rodriguez expects to come back strong
The New York Yankees are eagerly waiting for slugger Alex Rodriguez, more commonly known as "A-Rod," to return to the line-up, and A-Rod promises that when he does, he will be as strong as ever. The Yankees have the Tampa Bay Rays right on their heels in the race for the AL East pennant, but A-Rod says that he doesn’t need to rush back because the Yankees are doing just fine without him. They are 12-0 in games without A-Rod in the line-up. The slugger was placed on the 15-day disabled list after straining his calf muscle.
“I'm not concerned that I'm going to come back and come back strong, my only concern the way things are going right now ... [general manager Brian Cashman] and [manager ]Joe [Girardi] are going to bring me into the office and upgrade it to a 50-day DL,” joked Rodriguez.
Girardi has said though that once A-Rod is back he will be in his usual clean-up spot in the batting order. "He's the cleanup hitter and he's done a tremendous job," Girardi said. "You look at the production he's given us in that spot. Before he got hurt he was leading the majors in RBIs."
A-Rod may be struggling this season by his standards, but it has still been a historical year for him. On August 4th, he hit his 600th career home run, becoming the seventh player in the famed 600 club. He’s hitting .265 with 21 home runs and has 97 RBIs in just 112 games. Rodriguez strained his calf last week and missed three games. He then aggravated the injury when he returned to the line-up.
It’s amazing how the Yankees have managed to go undefeated in A-Rod’s absence. However, wins haven’t really been difficult to come by. They still have the best record in the majors and the only reason they aren’t in total command of their division is because they have some other great teams chasing them, namely the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox. Even the Toronto Blue Jays have proven to be difficult to put away.
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