A series of boo-boos by A-Rod

Yankees star fails with bat, glove

NEW YORK - When he struck out to end the game, fanning on a 95-mile-per-hour fastball from Jonathan Papelbon, Alex Rodriguez didn't have to wait to hear the verdict from the 55,058 jurors in Yankee Stadium. They had let him know all game how they felt, booing him lustily for his performance in last night's 7-3 loss to the Red Sox.

Rodriguez did not raise a single objection.

"It was an awful night for me personally," said A-Rod after he went 0 for 5, striking out twice and meekly grounding into a pair of double plays, including one that killed a rally with the bases loaded in the seventh. "A long night."

Worse yet, it took reliever Justin Masterson only two pitches to induce A-Rod to ground to shortstop Alex Cora, who fielded the ball, stepped on the bag to get Bobby Abreu (walk) at second, then turned the DP by throwing out Rodriguez at first.

Oh, how that one burned the Bombers. Yankees fans, too.

And they let A-Rod hear about it in no uncertain terms.

"Oh yeah, they're loud," he said. "No one's more frustrated than me. Everyone's desperate for wins, and on a night like tonight, I was even booing myself."

There was nothing else for Rodriguez to do but join the chorus, which grew louder when he was charged with an error on a throw to first that enabled Jason Bay to reach in the eighth.

"I screwed it up any way you could screw it up," he said. "This time of year, you can't sit around and start judging yourself and start worrying about what happened tonight or last night."

How then did he explain his rash of DPs? In the first 92 games, Rodriguez hit into just four. In the last 19, he's had nine. What's going on there?

"I have no idea," he said. "Terrible. There's absolutely no excuse, and my team expects me to get big hits and make plays, and tonight I didn't do that."

Particularly when the game begged for him to do so in the seventh when reliever Manny Delcarmen opened the inning by fanning Ivan Rodriguez, but proceeded to load the bases on walks to Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu sandwiching a single by Derek Jeter.

"Johnny, Jete, and Bobby worked great at-bats all night," Rodriguez said. "And I just killed the rally."

It was perplexing to A-Rod. After all, he flourished in such situations last year, which helped him earn American League MVP honors with career highs of 156 RBIs and 143 runs.

"It's frustrating," said Rodriguez, whose average dipped to .308 to go with 78 RBIs, 85 runs, and 28 home runs. "You wish you could bottle those feelings and do it the same all the time. It'd be great to drive in 160 every year; that'd be incredible."

But it'd be wholly unrealistic, which describes the expectations Yankee fans have placed on A-Rod.

"Alex expects to be the greatest player - ever," Damon said. "He expects that of himself on a day-to-day basis. He expects to be, and, unfortunately, tonight he wasn't."

But that was not about to prevent Rodriguez from trying to acquit himself in the court of public opinion tonight.

"Tonight I had opportunities to help the team win and we didn't," he said. "Again, you can't look back and start feeling sorry for yourself. I'll be here early tomorrow working with [hitting instructor] Kevin [Long] and I'll be ready to go. That's part of the game. When you play every day, you're going to get your [butt] kicked sometimes, and tonight I did.

"Tomorrow can't come fast enough. I'll be here early, ready to work, and with a good attitude."

Last night A-Rod didn't need 55,058 jurors to indict him, because he was quick to do it himself.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team, and tonight you can put it on me," he said. "But I'm going to help this team win a lot of games, too."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.