The Daily News
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Saturday, October 10th 2009, 4:00 AM
NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Alex Rodriguez(notes) #13 of the New York Yankees hits a two run home run in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins in Game Two of the ALDS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 9, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Now and only now it is like old times at the new place, because of a Game 2 against the Twins that will be remembered, because this game and this night was the way it used to be across the street when getting the last three outs against the Yankees seemed like the hardest baseball job in this world. This is the way it used to be when somebody, Derek Jeter or Paul O'Neill or Brosius or Tino, would make a swing or give the old Stadium another late-game moment and later they would talk about feeling the ground shake. Now this Yankee team does that at the new Stadium. A-Rod and Mark Teixeira went deep and made the ground shake.
It finally ended, one more comeback and one more walk-off night, this one in the playoffs, this one when they could have made real trouble for themselves against the Twins, when Teixeira hit a 3-iron that hit the top of the left-field wall just inside the foul pole and skipped over and made it 4-3 for the Yankees on a roller-coaster baseball night, made it 2-0 for them in this division series, made sure that they did not go back to the Metrodome even with the Twins.
"Thought I hit a double, because of the topspin," Teixeira would say. "Then the crowd started going nuts."
"You don't have to score runs early to win the game," Teixeira would say.
This is the kind of 1-2 stick the Yankees wanted, paid big for, expected from him and from A-Rod. They got all they wanted and all they needed Friday night. But Teixeira's shot isn't the one they will remember from this night. They just won't remember the bottom of the 11th at the Stadium the way they will remember the bottom of the ninth, the way they will remember the biggest swing Alex Rodriguez has ever made for the Yankees, his two-run shot off Twins closer Joe Nathan that took a 3-1 victory for the Minnesota Twins, series about to be even, and evened Game 2.
When it was over Friday night they asked him how much pressure he had taken off himself by getting a couple of RBI in Game 1.
"It made me feel as if I had checked in," he said Friday night, "started contributing."
Then he was asked about the stakes Friday night, the stage.
"It felt really good, because we needed it," he said. "But we've been playing like this all year."
"Since Opening Day there's been magic," he said.
NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Mark Teixeira(notes) #25 of the New York Yankees hits a walk off home run in the eleventh inning against the Minnesota Twins in Game Two of the ALDS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 9, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Not like Friday night. Teixeira had singled off Nathan to start the bottom of the ninth, a hard single to right. Here came A-Rod. The other night he had ended his epic streak of leaving postseason runners on base, one that stretched all the way back to the Red Sox series in 2004. Forty runners on base, forty runners left on base. Then he knocked in those two the other night and knocked in the first Yankee run Friday night. And it was all just preamble to A-Rod against Nathan, the second fastball he saw from him.
He got the count to 3-1 and then he hit this shot to right-center, and you knew it was gone the way he did and the way the place did. It was one of those. Carlos Gomez, the Twins center fielder, chased it all the way to the "NYY Steak" sign in front of the Yankees bullpen. After that the only guy who was going to catch it was the guy who did: Yankees bullpen coach Mike Harkey. Right in front of the big "Toyota" sign behind the bullpen. Because A-Rod tried to hit the ball over that.
The Twins would load the bases with nobody out in the top of the 11th before the kid, David Robertson, got out of it. Teixeira's home run was the walk-off shot. But it was the shot from A-Rod that did it Friday night, like the punch that set up everything that would happen later, from a kid relief pitcher and the home run from Teixeira. A-Rod's shot will be remembered best, until the next one.
"It's a pretty unbelievable feeling for a manager when he gets to put those two guys in the lineup," Joe Girardi said. "They have been huge for us all year."
Alex Rodriguez had started to look like the easiest out in the world in October. Now, suddenly, he isn't. He comes up down two runs Friday night and shows everybody that he is a lot more than just Mr.October7th because of a couple of RBI in Game1.
This is the way it was supposed to be when the Yankees took on all that money when they traded for him. He would make swings like this and the Yankees would win big games and finally win it all. Then he couldn't hit in the postseason after breaking in with a big first-round series against the Twins in '04 and then came that remarkable streak of failures in the clutch. So really, this is where he came in, five years later, making swings like this in October for the Yankees against the Twins.
Never a swing like this. Never a moment like this as a Yankee, a night like this. He never made the ground shake, either side of 161st, until now.
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