Davidoff: Hot A-Rod key to Yankees' October hopes

The Yankees cleared Target Field last evening, their workout complete, but their highest-paid player made some folks work overtime.

As nearly everyone else headed for the visitors' clubhouse, Alex Rodriguez positioned himself at the edge of the infield grass. Infield coach Mick Kelleher fed him slow rollers. Barehands, gloved balls, throws to Robinson Cano at second, throws to coaching assistant Brett Weber at first base.

Then to the plate, where hitting coach Kevin Long stood behind a cage (in front of the mound) and underhanded pitches to A-Rod, who smoked them to all fields.

These extra workouts, a longtime A-Rod staple, used to symbolize his perceived shortcomings: tries too hard. A show-off. The king of practice time, a jester in the big moments.

Now? He's simply the player most likely to carry the Yankees to the final buzzer, preparing for his big moments.

"His [2009] playoffs were great, and he had a great month of September last year, and he had a great month this year," Joe Girardi said on the eve of American League Division Series Game 1. "So I feel really good about Alex going into this playoffs."

"It has taken me a while to get to this point," A-Rod said, "but I think it feels good to be here."

This Yankees team has an odd vibe, as you know by now. The rough finish (13-17 from Sept. 1 onward) has the baseball world wondering whether the Yankees have another championship run in them. The Core Four of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera, so vital to last year's run, enters with questions about health and performance. Players such as Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and even Mark Teixeira haven't produced stellar postseason numbers.

Which leaves A-Rod as an exclamation point among question marks. True, he put up his worst overall season since he became a regular big-league player. Yet he put up such huge numbers this past month (.375 on-base percentage, .600 slugging percentage, nine homers), and he played so well in last year's postseason, that the Yankees feel very good about having him.

"It's unbelievable, man," Cano said. "He got 30 home runs again and 125 RBIs, and he missed all those games? Unbelievable."

"He looks good. He looks comfortable," Long said. "There's no real concerns there."

No, just hope that A-Rod will use whatever combination of humility and quick wrists produced last year's magical postseason. His ridiculous .500 OBP, .808 SLG, six homers and 18 RBIs obliterated his narrative as an October flop.

"He exorcised those demons," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "Now it's just about this day's game. No more questions about what he hasn't been able to do - 'He's been able to accomplish everything else but . . .' Now it's just pure baseball.

"It's just a lot easier. It turns down the noise."

Said Long: "I think it just goes to show you, just because a person has a small sample of postseason games . . . Now you look at his numbers and everyone says he's clutch. So you just can't get too high or low on guys. That's the thing I see that happens the most.

"Alex is such a good player for such a long time. Since I've been here, he's been clutch a lot. I just think it was unfair that's what was happening, and without Alex, we don't win last year. That's how clutch he was."

Long and A-Rod were working in Kansas City in mid-August when they fixed his swing by making sure he "cleared his hips," as the lingo goes; he hit three homers against the Royals on Aug. 14. A stint on the disabled list (left calf strain) delayed that reawakening, but didn't snuff it out.

And now, to A-Rod, October comes to re-enforce his greatness, rather than bury it. He looks ready to keep working at it.