Alex Rodriguez Intentionally Beaned in Boston, Then Homers in 9-6 Comeback Win

Rodriguez was also playing phenomenal defense.

He's a great ballplayer. It's too bad with all the allegation of PED use, but I don't see why he got targeted like this?

The New York Times has the full report, "Hit by Pitch, Rodriguez Recovers, as Do Yanks":

BOSTON — Alex Rodriguez has been at odds with Major League Baseball and the Yankees’ front office for weeks, but until Sunday night his battles were waged strictly off the field. Then came Ryan Dempster, who injected himself into the narrative with a 92-mile-per-hour fastball to Rodriguez’s rib cage.

In what appeared to be a blatantly intentional act, Dempster hit Rodriguez with a pitch in the second inning of the Yankees’ 9-6 victory over the Red Sox, prompting a wild outburst by Manager Joe Girardi in support of Rodriguez and a comeback by the Yankees that seemed to signal that, no matter what Rodriguez may or may not have done off the field, his teammates support him on it.

But Rodriguez’s response was by far the most compelling. Four innings after he was plunked — and Girardi was ejected for arguing the fact that Dempster was not ejected — Rodriguez shrugged off the thunderous booing and drove a ball about 10 rows into the center-field bleachers, the deepest part of Fenway Park, to initiate a four-run sixth inning that gave the Yankees the lead for good.

Even as Rodriguez wages an ugly and public legal war against the Yankees, he is helping them win games, none more emotionally charged than this one, which moved them seven and a half games behind Boston in the American League East.

Continue reading.

And more here, "More Friction Between Yankees and Rodriguez."