[新聞] A-Rod making it look easy
From: http://tinyurl.com/yrj9p3
04/12/2007 3:30 PM ET
A-Rod making it look easy
Recent power binge highlights how special slugger can be
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com
OAKLAND -- Don Mattingly knows a thing or two about being locked in on an
offensive tear.
It was 20 years ago that Mattingly's summer home run barrage thrilled Yankees
fans, as the first baseman hit round-trippers in eight consecutive July
games. The run remains a Major League record.
Now the Yankees bench coach, Mattingly watched this week as Alex Rodriguez
went halfway to the big-league record, homering in four straight contests and
doing so to all fields. Somewhere within that assault on American League
pitching, Mattingly laughed and marveled at just how easy this all seems to
come sometimes for A-Rod.
"For him, it takes a lot less than it took for me," Mattingly said. "When
you're seeing the ball good, your confidence is just sky-high. You're not
worried about getting behind in the count, you're laying off bad pitches,
you're not swinging over strikes. When you're in that situation, everything
seems like it slows down for you a little bit. Everything's going your way."
Rodriguez seems determined not to discuss his hot start in any terms of
length, instead replying to inquiries with quotes that barely illuminate more
than your average television highlight. Indeed, as he says, Rodriguez is
seeing the ball well and hitting it where it is pitched.
But can it really be that simple?
"I think for him, it can be," said Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long. "What
he's saying is that there's not a whole lot of thinking going on right now.
He's up there seeing and reacting to it. By the pitches he's hitting --
fastball, curveballs, sliders, changeups -- it looks that way."
Rodriguez set a new Yankees record with six home runs in the first seven
games of the season. Just one player, Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt,
had hit more, slugging eight to open the 1976 campaign.
"When you're hot, there's really not a lot to think about," manager Joe Torre
said. "You just react. A lot of times, when you're in a little bit of a
slump, you over-try and start thinking about it. I think where he is now, he
doesn't want to think about it, because it's working so well for him."
Rodriguez has credited his batting cage work with Long as a major reason for
the historic start. Long said that Rodriguez has maintained much the same
workout regimen from the first day of Spring Training, a seven-week period in
Tampa, Fla., when those in uniform noted how much more comfortable and
confident Rodriguez looked going into the season.
"I've been at peace for a while," Rodriguez said.
Long said that Rodriguez's daily routine has provided structure for
Rodriguez, a player who thrives upon his preparation.
"He's diligent with his work," Long said. "He does it every day; it starts
off with the tee, just working on staying square and staying short, and
staying compact to the ball while using all fields."
Rodriguez's association with Long, the Yankees' first-year hitting coach,
actually began during the winter months, when Long paid a visit to
Rodriguez's Florida neighborhood. Catching up with the two-time MVP as he
conducted some of his workouts at the University of Miami facilities, Long
said the encounter was productive for both parties.
"That was a great opportunity for us to get a head start, not only on Spring
Training but the season," Long said. "I think we're seeing some of those
dividends. I think it's everything I expected. I know sometimes he's fought
himself a little bit [in the past], but he hasn't fought himself at all."
Doug Mientkiewicz -- a teammate of Rodriguez's at Westminster Christian High
School in Florida -- briefly stopped by the campus to work out with
Rodriguez, or at least attempt to. What Mientkiewicz soon learned was that he
could no longer keep up with the player who, in his youth, once served as a
speedy, get-on-base leadoff man for Mientkiewicz to drive in.
"You can't really describe it," Mientkiewicz said. "The guy lived, ate and
drank conditioning himself. He kills himself every winter, but I would say
that the attention to detail this winter was insane. If I did that one day
with him, I wouldn't have been able to walk for three weeks."
It's not just the frequency of Rodriguez's home runs that impresses
observers. Perhaps even more importantly, Rodriguez has already shown the
mind-set that he will hit the ball with authority to all fields, having
already homered over every wall during his first eight games at Yankee
Stadium and Minnesota's Metrodome.
"No question I'm a better hitter when I'm spraying the ball around,"
Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez's most memorable home run may have been his game-winning grand slam
to dead center field in the Bronx on Saturday, bailing out an ineffective Kei
Igawa from suffering his first Major League loss, but the Yankees have found
reason to celebrate each and every deep drive.
"He's having fun and he's not forcing it," Mattingly said. "You see it all
over -- everything about his game. It's just obviously one of those grooves
right now."
In a first-inning display on Tuesday, Rodriguez went down and banished a Boof
Bonser changeup to more than a dozen rows deep in the Metrodome's left-field
seats, a drive that the former Twin Mientkiewicz opined was one of the three
hardest-hit balls he'd ever seen in Minnesota.
Of those three, Mientkiewicz said, Rodriguez owned two.
"You can't pitch him one way, because he doesn't hit to one field," Torre
said. "I think that's a big advantage. As a former catcher myself, those guys
who hit balls all over the place, they really didn't give you any part of the
plate to pitch to.
"I'm not saying he's always going to be this way, but when he's hitting
right, it's really tough to find a soft spot. He doesn't have to hit the ball
on the screws to do damage."
Torre has said that even Rodriguez's outs are loud, prompting Yankees players
to wonder if each and every fly ball to the outfield is destined to clear the
wall. It doesn't exactly work that way, of course, but even when Rodriguez
doesn't homer, he's been productive, driving an extra-base hit in each one of
New York's eight games -- and 11 straight dating back to last season.
Rodriguez did not homer in Wednesday's 5-1 loss, but he drove in the Yankees'
lone run with a sacrifice fly and ripped a ground-rule double to left-center
off Joe Nathan in the ninth inning.
But as Mientkiewicz said this week, Rodriguez doesn't always need to bash
balls up the gaps to be impressive.
Rodriguez's best at-bat during the Minnesota series, Mientkiewicz believes,
came in the eighth inning of New York's 10-1 blowout victory on Tuesday.
Instead of swinging for the fences and trying to pad his stats, Mientkiewicz
said Rodriguez "spit on" some subpar offerings and wound up trotting to first
base with a walk.
"To me, that stuck out more in my head than the homers," Mientkiewicz said.
"He gets that he's feeling good and he gets that it can change that quick. I
talked to him about it: I said that I was more proud he didn't give that
at-bat away than the home run you hit."
It isn't as though Rodriguez has never experienced an offensive tear before;
no player bearing his career credentials would consider such a hot streak
foreign territory.
But it is coming at a time when many are paying attention to Rodriguez,
unwrapping the bow on a fresh Major League season and doing so in the
spotlight of New York which suddenly has taken to -- once more -- shining
favorably upon A-Rod.
As catcher Jorge Posada said earlier in the week, nobody wants to look away
when Rodriguez is batting, for fear of missing the next memorable highlight.
"The scary thing is, I don't think he's locked in, full-tilt," Mientkiewicz
said. "I guess I have higher expectations of him, but he's getting one hit a
night. It happens to be a 700-foot home run, but I've seen him also where
he's hitting balls gap-to-gap at will. I just look at it like he's having
good at-bats right now."
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