New York New York it’s a hell of a town  The Bronx is up and A-Rod is getting sat down!

That’s right, ahead of the biggest game of year for the biggest market in baseball, the New York Yankees have elected to bench their $29 million third baseman.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Alex Rodriguez has once again fallen off of the postseason map.  Rodriguez is 2 for 16 with nine strike outs (0 for 11 with all 9 strike outs coming against right handed pitchers) in the series. His inability to produce much of anything was enough to force the hand of bench boss Joe Girardi into pinch-hit for him in both games 3 and 4 of the series.

Perhaps Girardi has done his research ahead of game 5 and benching A-Rod, history will show that in decisive games A-ROD STINKS!!!  Since game 7 of the 2004 ALCS Rodriguez has gone a pathetic 0 for 13 in his career as a Yankee in do or die games.

Joe Girardi informed the media around 1pm today that he had spoken with Rodriguez via telephone to inform him of his decision.  “I think he’s just going through a difficult time,” said Girardi, “He’s meant a lot to our organization. But he’s struggled against right-handers in this series. So I made the decision to start Chavvy today.”

Rodriguez responded by saying

“It’s never about Joe, I always have to look in the mirror. I’ve got to do what I can do, whatever I can do, to help the team. Don’t assume that you’ve heard the last from us, or me.”

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