His play should speak for itself
You can holler nasty things at him; chant "A-Rod! A-Rod!" all day. You can yell every time there's a popup to third base and hope he drops it, but the bottom line is this: Alex Rodriguez is one great baseball player.
Amid the rain, with Jonathan Papelbon on the hill in the top of the ninth in a 5-5 game last night, the count 0 and 2, Rodriguez launched a home run over the right-field fence into the Red Sox bullpen. He won the game for the Yankees, who came away with two wins out of three games, the second consecutive time the Yankees have won the series against the Sox.
This capped off quite a week for A-Rod.
He had a rough go of it when paparazzi photographed him with a woman in Toronto. Then there was the fiasco at the Rogers Centre when he ran by rookie third baseman Howie Clark and claimed he shouted "Ha!," which made Clark back off a popup that fell in for a hit. Then he came to Boston, an unforgiving place if you're a Yankee.
After the game, Rodriguez had a smile on his face for the first time in a while. He was enjoying a meal of steak tips and shrimp, chatting with Derek Jeter about his at-bat against Papelbon.
"It was just good to get a win," said Rodriguez about the magnitude of his 20th homer, marking the 12th consecutive season he has hit 20 or more. "It was a good swing but not that good. My best two swings of the night were against Brendan Donnelly, especially on the ball I popped up [in the seventh with two on]. I was happy with the swings but the results weren't there. There's no excuse right there not to drive in a run. I failed miserably right there and I was hoping I'd get another chance to do something to help us win."
He said he heard some of the stuff directed at him by the Boston crowd, but he didn't take the bait on how hurtful those things were.
"I heard some of it, but it wasn't that bad," Rodriguez said. "It wasn't any more than it usually is. It's always fun to come here."
Yeah. Must be a blast. Though a game-winning home run has to ease those bruised feelings.
On Friday night, fans seated along the third base side sported blond masks, symbolic of the woman he was photographed with Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, was in Boston for part of the trip and the couple was seen holding hands Thursday. Of course, everyone assumed it was a photo opportunity, so A-Rod could show the world that he and his wife are doing just fine.
Sometimes he goes overboard to prove that nothing bothers him but, in reality, things do get to him. He told me in spring training how hurtful it was for him to have his hometown fans boo him last season. He got off to a great start this season with some walkoff hits and the crowd has backed off. He's taken the heat off himself because his talents are too incredible to ignore. He plays the game at the highest level and effort.
During the last series against the Red Sox in New York, he was accused of a cheap play because he ran hard to break up a double play and popped up with his elbow. What it showed more than anything was the highest-priced player cared enough to slide into second base that hard. But he was seen as a "dirty player" because of it and then the "Ha!" in Toronto, and well, he was just the biggest bum on earth.
Nobody knows whether A-Rod will execute the clause in his contract to opt out and become a free agent. Much depends on how the Yankees do this season. They've gotten off to a slow start, but A-Rod left Boston hitting .293 with 20 homers and 47 RBIs.
He'd have a limited market because few teams can afford him. One is Boston, which has a popular third baseman, Mike Lowell, who is at the end of his contract. The Red Sox did everything they could to land Rodriguez a few years ago, including offering Manny Ramírez to Texas, but when Rodriguez tried to give up some of his money to come to Boston to play shortstop, the players union said he couldn't do it. He went to New York instead.
He has said many times he'd love to play for the Red Sox and be a teammate of Ramírez, with whom he enjoys a friendship. Those chances appear remote, but on nights like last night when he wins games and runs the bases hard and shows off his athletic ability, you tend to forget the things that so many don't like about him.
Sure, Oakland rookie Travis Buck also hit an 0-and-2 fastball out of the yard against Papelbon May 1, but the conditions were far more intense last night.
"You're just trying to survive right there on 0 and 2 against Papelbon. He's got so many different ways to get you out," Rodriguez said . "The last thing I'm thinking right there is hitting a home run. I just want to take that pitch and drive it somewhere hard. That was a good pitch, down and away, and I just went out and tried to hit it hard."
Yankees manager Joe Torre said the home run "had to take the sting out of it [his bizarre week], I would think . . . Obviously, when you're dealing with a personal situation, it's more than just a game. He's had to try to put it off to the side and play the game. It's not easy to do."
It's not. It's also not easy to hear what he hears every time he plays here. I don't care what he said, when the Boston fans were chanting "A-Rod!" and he homers and you can hear a pin drop at Fenway, that's a special player doing something special for his team.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. 
