A-Rod's shot off TV camera in rightfield ruled home run after replay
PHILADELPHIA - One way or another, the camera always seems to find Alex Rodriguez. In Game 3 of the World Series Saturday night, A-Rod returned the favor, hitting the lens of a TV camera perched above the wall in the rightfield corner at Citizens Bank Park in the fourth inning.
That wasn't the end of Rodriguez's video exploits. With the crew unsure what the ball struck, and after a visit by Yankees manager Joe Girardi, the umpires huddled for a few minutes before deciding to review the play.
They didn't deliberate for long. Shortly afterward, they emerged to signal a home run. Rodriguez got to finish his trot around the bases, igniting the Yankees in an eventual 8-5 win over the Phillies.
So A-Rod now can add the first video-reviewed homer in World Series history to a resume that also includes the first in regular-season play back in September 2008.
"Well, it's only fitting, right?" Rodriguez said. "I don't know if that's controversy with the replay. There is no controversy, so they had a good chance to see it in New York or wherever the headmaster is. I'm just glad we got a good ruling."
Jeff Nelson, the umpire closest to the play in rightfield, said he initially believed the ball had hit the railing. In that case, it would have remained in play. But Girardi was the one who raised the possibility that it could have been something else, such as a fan.
Said Nelson: "In this particular play, the ball hit something hard, solid, and it was - in my judgment, it was the top of the fence. And then when Joe [Girardi] came out, Joe just said, 'We think it hit a fan.' I said, 'It didn't hit a fan, it hit something solid. But we'll talk about it.' We talked about it, and we decided to use the replay.''
"I wasn't 100 percent sure, but our coaches started yelling they thought it hit the camera," Girardi said. "My eyes aren't great, so it was hard for me to see. When the ball gets that far away from you, you know it's really close, and with replay, you're going to go out there, and that's what we did."
Said crew chief Gerry Davis: "We tour the field during the series whenever we go to a new ballpark and discuss specific ground rules and potential trouble areas just like that. Because we cannot control what the cameraman does with the camera, one of the specific ground rules is when the ball hits the camera, home run."
The two-run homer trimmed the Yankees' deficit to 3-2, shook up Phillies starter Cole Hamels and also may have awakened the sleeping A-Rod, who was 0-for-8 with six strikeouts in the first two World Series games. In addition to the home run, he walked and twice was hit by pitches Saturday night. He now is 1-for-10 in the Series.
In the first two playoff rounds, Rodriguez hit .438 (14-for-32) with five home runs and 12 RBIs in nine games.
"I thought the first two days I got pitched to tough," Rodriguez said. "But I also felt I helped the opposing pitchers by swinging at balls that were borderline and not strikes. And I thought that the game plan today was to swing at strikes and to keep them in a zone, like I've been talking about all postseason."
After what Rodriguez had done to carry the Yankees to this point, Girardi no doubt was relieved.
"It was a big hit for us because it really got us going," Girardi said. "Alex has been a great player for a long time. He has been patient and he has not tried to do too much. I mean, he hit a home run to rightfield, down the rightfield line. To me, that tells you you're not over-swinging and he stayed in his game plan. He's been huge for us."
