BOSTON — The Red Sox hit Alex Rodriguez. Then A-Rod hit back.
Ryan Dempster drilled A-Rod in the second inning, bringing players from both benches and bullpens on to the field, though order was restored before things got out of hand.
Joe Girardi was ejected after A-Rod was hit, exploding on home-plate umpire Brian O’Nora with a foul-mouthed rant atypical of the Yankees manager.
Rodriguez got his revenge four innings later, drilling a Dempster pitch to dead-center for his second home run of the season and taunting the Boston crowd with an animated clap and fist pump, to say nothing of a few F-bombs as he rounded the bases.
Oh yeah, the Yankees also won the game, 9-6, Sunday night.
“Today kind of brought us together,” A-Rod said. “Joe’s reaction was amazing. Every single one of my teammates came up to me and said, ‘Hit a bomb and walk it off.’ They were as pissed as I was. That’s just not right.”
Brett Gardner’s bases-loaded triple in the same sixth inning put the Bombers ahead to stay en route to their third consecutive series win, moving them within 7.5 games of the first-place Bosox. They also stand six games out of the second AL wild-card spot with 39 games to play.
“Whether I agree with everything that’s going on, you don’t throw at people,” Girardi said about the circus surrounding A-Rod. Players around the league have been critical of A-Rod being able to play during the appeal of his 211-game suspension, most recently Red Sox pitcher John Lackey. “You can’t start changing the system because you don’t like it. You can’t take your pot shots.
“You’d have to have your head in the sand to not know what was coming. There is no explanation. It can’t happen. You can’t start throwing at people.”
Added Rodriguez himself, “Whether you like me or hate me, what’s wrong is wrong. It was unprofessional and silly. Kind of a silly way to get somebody hurt on your team, as well.”
CC Sabathia (11-10) earned the win despite allowing six runs on seven hits and five walks over 5.1 bumpy innings.
When asked if he was tempted to retaliate against Boston, the lefty said, “I think Alex did the best retaliation by what he did.”
Mariano Rivera pitched for the first time in a week, earning his 36th save of the season and first since Aug. 3 to snap his skid of three straight blown opportunities.
The weekend was important for the Yankees, although as has been the case during the past two weeks, the A-Rod saga seemed to trump just about everything else.
Hours before the teams took the field, general manager Brian Cashman spoke with reporters for nearly 30 minutes, strongly denying the charges levied Saturday by Rodriguez’s attorney in The New York Times. The lawyer claimed that during last year’s playoffs, the Yankees hid an MRI from A-Rod that revealed an injured hip before sending him onto the field.
“I think our players are doing a remarkable job of trying to separate from something that I don’t think any of us has ever had to deal with,” Cashman said.
The fireworks took place in the top of the second, as Dempster threw a pitch behind A-Rod’s legs, then unleashed another inside pitch.
“This guy has pretty good control,” A-Rod said. “I thought it was over at that point. I thought the umpires would handle it at least, make sure no one gets hurt in that situation.”
Dempster’s third pitch was also a ball, then – with the crowd chanting “You’re a cheater!” – Dempster drilled Rodriguez on his left elbow with his fourth pitch, the ball then deflecting into A-Rod’s rib cage.
As the Fenway crowd roared with approval, Girardi came flying out of the dugout with rage after O’Nora quickly issued warnings to both teams.
Girardi got in O’Nora’s face, holding up three fingers as if to remind him how many pitches Dempster had thrown inside to A-Rod. Girardi could also be seen yelling and swearing at Dempster, who somehow was not ejected from the game.
Dempster insisted he was not throwing at A-Rod intentionally.
“I was trying to pitch him inside,” Dempster said.
Players ran onto the field from both benches and bullpens, though nothing escalated between them and no punches were thrown. Gardner appeared to be the hottest among A-Rod’s teammates, as a couple of Yankees had to restrain him.
“I was pretty mad,” Gardner said. “I’m not sure how I would feel if I was on a different team, but Alex is my teammate and obviously I’m glad to have him back in the room.”
“That was silly and unprofessional and my teammates reacted,” A-Rod said. “I think Joe’s reaction was incredible. Hopefully we can take this and build some momentum for the rest of the year.”
The Yankees wound up scoring two runs in the inning to tie the game at 2. A-Rod came to bat in the third inning with one out and runners at the corners, greeted by a chorus of boos.
He got a small measure of revenge with an RBI groundout that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead, but his best was yet to come.
The Red Sox tied the game in the third, then took a lead in the fourth with two more runs off Sabathia.
The lefty issued a bases-loaded walk to Daniel Nava in the fifth to make it 6-3, but Sabathia struck out Stephen Drew to strand three runners and keep the game within reach.
A-Rod led off the Yankee sixth by drilling Dempster’s 1-0 pitch over the center-field wall, at least 430 feet from home plate. A-Rod gave an enthusiastic clap as he reached first base, then pumped his right arm in the air, circling the bases and unloading a few F-bombs to the jeers of the Boston crowd.
“It was awesome,” A-Rod said. “I was pretty excited. It was the ultimate payback.”
Asked if his words as he rounded the bases were meant for Dempster, A-Rod said they were not, though he admitted to possibly celebrating at the plate a little more than he typically does.
“He couldn’t hear me anyway, as loud as they were booing me,” A-Rod said. “I was just really excited.”
The home run cut the deficit to 6-4 and seemed to both rattle Dempster and energize the Yankees. Eduardo Nunez and Lyle Overbay hit one-out singles, then Dempster (6-9) walked Chris Stewart on four nowhere close pitches to load the bases and end his night. But he walked off the mound to a standing ovation.
Lefty Drake Britton took over and promptly gave up a bases-clearing triple to Gardner, giving the Yankees a 7-6 lead.
“It felt good,” Gardner said. “They brought in a lefty to face me and I was glad I was able to come through and get the job done.”
A-Rod opened the seventh with a single, and although he was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice, the hit helped the Yankees add a run on Mark Reynolds’ pinch-hit single later in the frame.
Rodriguez finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, two runs scored and one memorable home run.
“I felt we handled it the right way and reacted the right way,” he said of the dramatic events. “With a win.”
