A Home Run Parade That Rodriguez Is Unable to Join

Yankees 16, White Sox

The Yankees have played 16,218 games since their first season in 1903. Never have they hit more home runs than they did last night at Yankee Stadium. Seven players slugged a total of eight homers in a 16-3 rout of the Chicago White Sox, tying a club record set in 1939.

Babe Ruth was the career home run leader then. Hank Aaron was 5 years old. Barry Bonds came along much later. Alex Rodriguez may one day top them all, but he has to reach 500 first. And that pursuit has become excruciating.

pursuit n. 追蹤；追求
excruciating a. 極痛苦的，令人苦惱的


Rodriguez flied out five times and is hitless in 17 at-bats since swatting his 499th career homer last Wednesday. The fans squealed whenever he batted last night, snapping photographs and hoping for history. They got history, just not the kind they expected.

squeal v. 發出長而尖的叫聲

“It's not one of those games you play with dice,” Manager Joe Torre said. “This is real people out there. I'm sure if you polled everybody in baseball who didn't see the game and saw eight home runs being hit, they would have guessed that Alex hit two or three of them. But that’s the game.”

Rodriguez, who played seven innings, was dressed and gone by the time Torre spoke. Outside the clubhouse as he left, he said he was not disappointed. Four of his outs were to center or right, usually a good sign for a right-handed hitter.

“When you hit the ball well, that's all you're looking for,” Rodriguez said.

Still, if he had homered off Gavin Floyd in the seventh, he would have lifted the Yankees to a single-game team record in home runs. But he lined out to center, then gave his bat to a boy in the stands behind the dugout.

By then, Rodriguez was hitting behind Shelley Duncan, who took over in right field for Bobby Abreu, who smashed a three-run homer in the first off the former Yankee José Contreras. Duncan homered in the seventh, his fourth home run in the four games in which he has had an at-bat at Yankee Stadium.

“This is the only lineup in baseball that can come to the field every day and something extremely exciting can happen like that, one through nine,” said Duncan, who is quickly becoming a folk hero in the Bronx. “It's so much fun to watch, just being a part of it in the dugout.”

The game began three hours after the trading deadline passed, and the Yankees did not add Eric Gagné, a reliever they could have had if they had parted with center fielder Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera showed why he was worth keeping. He raced to the warning track to rob Josh Fields of an extra-base hit in the first inning, and punctuated the Yankees' five-run third inning with a homer, punching the air as he rounded first base.

“He's really contributed a huge amount to this club — with his defense, with his energy, with his ability to get on base and run,” said Mike Mussina, who worked six innings to lift his record to 6-7. “It's just another aspect we have to have. I'm really glad he's still with us.”

Home runs by Abreu and Hideki Matsui gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the first. Mussina gave three back on a home run by Juan Uribe in the second, but Robinson Canó drove Contreras from the game with a three-run homer in the third, and the rout was under way.

Matsui homered again in the sixth, giving him 13 for the month. He hit .345 in July, with 28 runs batted in and 31 runs scored, making a compelling case to be named the American League’s player of the month.

compelling a. 令人注目的

Then again, Canó and Abreu will also have a chance. Canó finished July with a .385 average, 6 homers and 24 R.B.I. Abreu batted .353 for the month, with 5 home runs and 29 R.B.I.

Even Johnny Damon, who also homered last night, is batting .400 (16 for 40) since a hitless streak of 20 at-bats, the longest of his career, ended July 20. It is no coincidence that the Yankees’ left-handed hitters have fueled the team's surge.

surge n. 波濤，大浪

The Yankees went 19-9 in July and are now three games behind Cleveland for the wild-card lead and seven games behind Boston in the American League East.

It was such a good night that Kyle Farnsworth managed a 1-2-3 inning, only his fifth in 45 appearances. Farnsworth complained Sunday that he was being underused, and Torre met with him yesterday.

“He's going to be better with regular work, and we're going to make it a point to do that,” Torre said. “He's got very good stuff. He needs to go out on a regular basis and get tuned up.”