Rodriguez OK after taking throw in face

TAMPA -- A hush came over Legends Field and to the masses watching on the YES Network last night when $25 million man Alex Rodriguez suffered a bruised left cheekbone when he was struck in the face by a throw and had to leave the game in the fourth inning of last night's 8-6 Yankees win over the Red Sox.

There didn't appear to be blood on Rodriguez's face as he was escorted off the field by Yankees trainer Gene Monahan, but he was blinking his left eye, which appeared partially shut.

The near nightmare began when Kevin Millar lined a double past Rodriguez, who was not guarding the line. Hideki Matsui fielded the ball in the left-field corner and threw toward third, where Brian Daubach was running from first. Rodriguez was anticipating fielding a one-hop throw, but the ball ricocheted off the right ankle of a sliding Daubach and struck Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who was swollen and bruised under his left eye after the game, said he remembered little of the play. "I felt my bell rung pretty good," said the Yankee superstar, who had a CT scan that came back negative. "I had a little bit of a flashback to a similar situation in high school, when I broke my cheekbone."

That happened in 1993, when Rodriguez was 17 and at Miami Westminster Christian High. He said he was sitting in the dugout when an overthrow struck him in the face, fracturing the cheekbone. He subsequently had surgery, "This was the same cheekbone," he said. Initial concerns that he may have fractured it again faded, he said, after he got to the trainers' room and the pain lessened.

Monahan sent Rodriguez home with an icepack and an admonition to keep it applied to the bruise overnight.

The Yankees are due to leave for Tokyo later today. "No doubt, I'm going on the trip," he said.

It was certainly the game highlight on a night when swirling winds carried some balls and knocked down others. The Sox' Dave McCarty, who is vying for a bench spot, crushed his fifth home run, a three-run shot to left-center, later in the fourth.

Sox starter Tim Wakefield allowed five runs in four-plus innings. Wakefield said he was pleased with the movement of the knuckler, but was especially pleased with "the way I threw my other pitches. "I was able to get my pitch count up, but I wasn't happy with the results. The ball was knuckling good, but the bottom wasn't falling out." Gordon Edes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.