TAMPA, FL., March 6 — That was the question in Yankeeland a month ago, and we got the answer weeks ago. But the trade and the paperwork were one thing. The play on the field is another. The book on the left side of the 2004 Yankee infield is far from written, even if there were a few positive paragraphs inscribed in the Foreword Saturday in Legends Field.

Yes, Alex Rodriguez came up empty on a full-body dive on a Vernon Wells shot down the left field line. It started a three-run rally that closed a Yankee 6-2 lead to 6-5 in the fourth inning. But although A-Rod did not get very close to stopping that double, he did look several steps more comfortable handling a soft hopper off the bat of Greg Myers with one out in the second, charging and firing like a veteran third sacker.

Of course, it would be easy to point to Alex’s 3-for-3 day with the bat, with two runs scored. But it wouldn’t be fair to mention any Yankee’s offense without first highlighting the red-hot start in which catcher Jorge Posada has burst from the starting gate. Jorge followed his two-hit, two-run Friday with a monster day.

It was 31 years ago today in an exhibition game that Larry Hisle of the Twins turned the first-ever opportunity to serve as a designated hitter into a two-homer, seven-rbi day. On Saturday, Posada caught for five innings, and he sandwiched a three-run home run in the third in between two doubles, with six rbi of his own.

The game did not start well for the home-standing Yanks. Javier Vazquez set the Jays down in order in the first, while Pat Hentgen retired the Yanks around a two-out Rodriguez single. The young Yankee righthander bounded off the mound well on a 3-1 to start the second, and A-Rod followed with his scoop on Myers. To that point Vazquez had thrown 12 of 15 pitches for strikes, but he walked Hinske on five pitches and came in on a 2-2 pitch to Orlando Hudson. The light-hitting second sacker was anything but this day (he would bounce a drive over the centerfield wall in the fourth), and he drove the ball to the right field wall. It might have been a catchable ball; we’ll never know because Sheffield stumbled turning for the ball and then fell completely. Then with Hudson dancing off third, Posada’s pickoff attempt eluded A-Rod and the Jays had a 2-0 lead.

Sheffield wasted no time making amends for his slip when he led off the bottom half off lefty Bruce Chen with a single to right. Posada, Matsui, and Enrique Wilson doubles gave the Yanks a quick lead, with Wilson’s two-run shot hitting six inches from the top of the wall in left center. Wilson, too, has gotten off well. He lined hard to first and hit a foul homer along with a single Friday, and followed his double this day with a scintillating glove scoop to start a 4-6-3 in the fifth.

The Yanks and Jays then exchanged three-run bursts but just when it looked to be a two-team barn-burner at 6-5 in the fourth, Yankee pitchers Ramon Ramirez, Bret Prinz, Paul Quantrill, and Tom Gordon combined to face the minimum 15 Blue Jays batters from the fifth through the ninth. The only blemish was Reed Johnson’s single to lead off the fifth, and he was quickly erased on Wilson’s sparkling double play.

The Yanks, meanwhile, turned it on. Two Jays miscues and Posada’s boomer to the right field wall netted five in the fourth, and the “kiddee korps” of Mike Lamb, Jeff Deardorff, Mike Vento, and Sal Fasano closed the scoring with three tallies in the sixth. In fact, the Yanks were their own worst enemies. Aside from that tainted two-run second, a third-inning Sheffield foul liner almost knocked Jeter out along the dugout rail, and left fielder John Rodriguez hit one that threatened Mike Lamb in a similar manner in the sixth.

It would be hard to ignore Jorge Posada’s huge part in the 14-5 win this day, even with it being an exhibition game. And although Alex Rodriguez deserves a tip of this fan’s Yankee cap for his 3-for-3 at the plate, he made his day in my mind on his lead-off third-inning triple. Yankee bats blasted four different balls off the Legends Field wall in the win. The speedy Reed Johnson and Vernon Wells both converged on Alex’s shot when it caromed back, but Wells had a split-second problem fielding the bounce. With no hesitation, Rodriguez pounced on the chance and beat the relay with a hard slide into third.

The late comedian Lou Costello, who collaborated with Bud Abbott on the famed “Who’s on First?” routine that one can see at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown even today, would have celebrated his 98th birthday Saturday. In that comic classic, the answer given to the question, “Who’s playing third base?” is “I don’t know.”

After seeing that hustle, I know.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!