Instant replay steals victory for the Yankees

Alex Rodriguez never met a headline he couldn’t enlarge.

So there he was in the fourth inning, the Yanks reeling from a three-run deficit, the Philly fans chanting at him about steroids, and all Rodriguez did was slam a two-run homer off Cole Hamels to revive the Bronx zombies and lead them back to an 8-5 victory in Game 3 Saturday night.

He didn’t just hit a homer, of course. That would have been too conventional. A-Rod smacked the ball into an overhanging television camera near the right-field foul pole, creating great confusion among umpires, who required a replay ruling based on cameras that weren’t actually struck by the baseball.

The umps huddled, left the field to look at the replay then directed Rodriguez all the way around the basepaths for his sixth homer of this postseason, tying Bernie Williams’ club record. He broke up Hamel’s no-hitter, his shutout. And at this moment, you could almost see the bluster and oomph go right out of the Phillie starter, who started hanging stuff to everybody, including that mighty slugger Andy Pettitte.

“It was only fitting, right?” Rodriguez said about the controversy. “It was a big hit. I think it woke our offense up a little bit.”

With that one swing of the bat, Rodriguez rescued himself from becoming part of a trite, unpleasant discussion and the butt of many jokes. He was no longer batting .000 for the World Series. He was no longer as feeble as Ryan Howard. He was no longer the guy who was choking away all the good feelings from the two previous series. Yankee fans would forgive A-Rod’s fielding foibles Saturday night, which were uncharacteristically ugly but did not cost his team a run. They would forgive him the latest silly tabloid reports, which had him hanging up portraits of himself as a centaur on the wall.

That’s the thing with Rodriguez. He can be New York’s vain laughingstock one moment, its MVP the next. Fans will forgive him everything, as long as he keeps hitting cameras over the right-field wall.

Going into this game, Rodriguez’s October legacy was again somehow on the line after two of the lousiest World Series games imaginable. Just when he had risen above all the withering attacks, he had gone 0-for-8 in Games 1 and 2, with six strikeouts.

Not even his muse, Kate Hudson, could resuscitate Rodriguez. He looked awful, out of sync. He was swinging over bad pitches, looking again like the A-Rod who once labeled himself a dog in the playoffs.

Eight at-bats were hardly a fair sample size, of course. Rodriguez had batted .438 (14-for-32) with five homers and 12 RBI during the first two series against Minnesota and the Angels. He had carried the Yanks this far. He could afford a couple of bad days at the office.

“You can’t expect guys to hit a home run every day and to get two hits every day,” Joe Girardi said. “I mean, you make your pitches, in most cases you’ve got a pretty good chance to get guys out.”

Rodriguez was telling reporters that he was fine, if they would just listen. He was feeling less anxiety in the World Series, he insisted, than against Minnesota and the Angels.

“For me, I think there was more pressure earlier in the playoffs,” he had said. “The most pressure was in the Minnesota series, getting here. I’m not concerned. The fact that I’m 0-fer in this series and we’re 1-1 makes me feel good. I’ve missed some pitches, fouled some off. I think the (Phillie pitchers) are being careful.”

Then Saturday night, with even more weight on his shoulders because of the DH-less lineup, Rodriguez performed beyond expectations. Hamels conked him on the arm in his first at-bat. Then A-Rod took him deep the second time on an 0-1 pitch, changing Game 3, changing the series, changing everything. Chad Durbin hit Rodriguez a second time in the eighth inning, creating one more stir.

If he wants to be a centaur now, he’s a centaur. Rodriguez has earned that right.

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