Bronx, N.Y., July 2, 2006 — One wonders if any of the 55,000 crowded into Yankee Stadium for Sunday night’s crosstown interleague tilt with the Mets were dismissive of Alex Rodriguez’s three-run tracer that thumped off the facade of the black seats in dead center in the fifth inning. After all, it simply changed a 13-5 Yankee lead into a 16-5 one. You can hear the talk-radio drumbeat now: a “tack-on home run.”

Anyone making such a comment would be wrong of course. Alex won Wednesday’s tilt with the Braves with a 12th-inning come-from behind walkoff, and his single and home run in Saturday’s 8-3 loss plated the first and last Yankee runs of the day.

With the Yanks in danger of falling five full games behind the Red Sox Sunday night, the team’s fans faced a bleak prospect around 9:30, following an hour-plus rain delay. Joe Torre was forced to remove starter Jaret Wright with two down in the second with his team already down 4-0 to the rival Mets. Mr. Torre has often expressed his disdain for so many interleague games. He also believes these games, including the crosstown affairs with the Mets, are the least important of the long year, a point he makes every year, though the fans that crowd both stadiums simply don’t believe it.

So if they insist on believing these are BIG games, what will they make of A-Rod’s performance this night? There was nothing “tack-on” about the third-inning bases-loaded jack to right center that took a 4-2 Yankee deficit and turned it into a 6-2 lead. Alex had driven a shot to the warning track in the first, followed his grand slam with a single and run scored in the fourth, and polished off his night (and finished off the Mets) with the three-run screaming liner in the fifth. The fans, of course, loved Alex then. A word of advice, Alex: Don’t buy it; I know I don’t.

So now that we’ve established that the 16-7 Yankee win was all about Alex, let’s cover a few of the subplots. Backup infielder Nick Green quite likely would have been the story were it not for Alex’s prodigious blasts. Green made a hard, on-line, shoulder-high relay throw to Jorge Posada to nail Jose Valentin at the plate on Julio Franco’s double to the gap in the second, when the Mets were threatening to steal this one early.

With the visitors’ rally thwarted on Nick’s throw and Ron Villone’s to-the-rescue relief pitching, kudos go out to Jorge Posada, who blasted Mets starter Alay Soler’s third pitch of the second’s bottom half into the upper deck in right. The noise quieted the thousands of Mets fans present, but the score announced loud and clear that nobody on the Yankee bench thought this one was over. Posada not only reached the upper deck, and made the aforementioned tag, he contributed a double and two walks to the cause as well.

In for Miguel Cairo this night, Green led off the fateful third by reaching on a five-pitch walk. He scored on Derek Jeter’s single to close the gap to 4-2. Then when Melky Cabrera doubled off Solar to record the home team’s seventh run after the Yanks had taken a lead, Green greeted Mets reliever Heath Bell with a home run to straight center, and the 9-4 lead looked secure. Lefthander Villone deserves Yankee bravos for his gutty three frames while the Yanks took control, and he was effectively followed by T.J. Beam, Mike Myers, and Scott Proctor.

The Yankee offense continued on the warpath all night, with all nine starters reaching first base at least once, and all scoring a run too. A-Rod added rbi honors to his long-ball heroics: He led the pack with seven, Melky Cabrera chipped in with three via two long doubles, and Green drove in two. He stole his first Yankee base too.

So now the Yanks hold second place in the East again, after a one-day virtual tie with the Blue Jays. They’ve kept themselves within four of Boston, and take to the road for four in Cleveland and three in Tampa Bay leading into the All Star break. Alex Rodriguez will be joining Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Robinson Cano for those ceremonies in Pittsburgh next week, though it will be an off-the-field honor only for young, injured Mr, Cano. Alex and the Yanks don’t return to the Stadium for 11 days.

Last May, Alex made his Yankee name with three bombs and 10 rbi’s against Anaheim. And during the upcoming trip, he’ll be celebrating the 12th anniversary of his first game in the big leagues. Lots of great memories for him between then and now, I’m sure.

What Alex will the Yankee fans be remembering the next time he comes to bat in the Bronx 11 days hence?

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!