After Mariners' starters Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez pitched back-to-back complete games against the Yanks on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Bronx Bombers' offense fought back this afternoon and pulled out a 4-2 victory to prevent a Seattle sweep. A-Rod led the offensive burst for New York, as he broke the 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two-run homer off David Aardsma. Yankees' second baseman, Robinson Cano, also tallied a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth.
A-Rod's tie-breaking home run was the 595th of his career and he's now just 14 homers shy of Sammy Sosa, who currently places sixth among MLB's all-time home run leaders with 609. A-Rod's blast also saved starting pitcher CC Sabathia, who gave up two runs to the Mariners in the top of the eighth. Sabathia came away with his 10th win of the season while closer Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth to earn his 18th save of 2010.
Perhaps it was karma that gave Rodriguez his offensive spark. On Wednesday, the third baseman attended a ceremony put on by the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, to which he donated $250,000 in opening a new children's outpatient facility named in his honor.
"I am proud to support the children's outpatient facility and Bronx-Lebanon's efforts to care for the children of the Bronx community," Rodriguez said in a release posted on the Yankees' website.
So while he may be a beast on the field and an enemy to his opposition, A-Rod proved that under all his competitive armor, there's a kind humanitarian underneath — a benefactor who can also hit the hide off a baseball.