Will A-Rod show up in this series?

If you squinted hard enough at Yankee Stadium Sunday afternoon -- focused on the similarities to the old place across the street, saw Jim Leyland in the Tigers' dugout and watched Derek Jeter patrol shortstop for the home team -- you just might have convinced yourself that you had traveled back to 2006.

Any remaining doubts would have melted away once Alex Rodriguez popped out harmlessly to Ramon Santiago in the eighth inning, unleashing a healthy swarm of boos.

Yes, we're tied at a game apiece here in this Division Series, as was the case five years ago between the Yankees and Tigers. Just like then, the Yankees won the opener at home before dropping Game 2.

Just like then, A-Rod finds himself the primary target of Yankees fans' wrath.

"No big deal," said Rodriguez, who went 0-for-3 with a walk in the Yankees' 5-3 loss and is 0-for-8 in the series. "We're really focused on the goal here . . . No need to get caught up in emotions, or what you did last time."

The Yankees spent the entire regular season quelling their fans' worst fears about the club's biggest potential flaws, 1) starting pitching and 2) age. But it takes just one bad playoff game for those anxieties to return.

Freddy Garcia pitched just fine, but his finesse was trumped by the power of Tigers counterpart Max Scherzer. And waiting to start tomorrow night's Game 4 -- a potential season-ender if the Yankees drop Monday night's CC Sabathia-Justin Verlander Game 3 -- is A.J. Burnett.

Yeesh.

On the age front, Jorge Posada, the 40-year-old DH, contributed a strong game. Jeter, 37, did not, making a costly sixth-inning error and going 0-for-5. But the biggest questions have to rest with A-Rod, 36, who has struggled through right knee and left thumb injuries.

Including these two postseason games, A-Rod has a .323 on-base percentage and .316 slugging percentage in 93 plate appearances since his Aug. 21 return from right knee surgery. The thumb condition subsequently kept him in and out of the lineup until Sept. 17, and from then through Sunday, he has a .283 OBP and .250 SLG in 47 plate appearances.

It's no surprise that, after the Yankees' ninth-inning rally fell short, Leyland said he considered walking Robinson Cano (whose grounder ended the game) to go after A-Rod.

"This time of year, nobody cares," Rodriguez said. "Nobody wants to hear 'banged up' or not. You've just got to basically take one pitch at a time, perform."

"If you want to beat him up over two games, certainly people have the right to do that," Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said. "But I don't think it's fair." Long professed his belief that A-Rod looked good going 0-for-5 in the two-day Game 1 before being "a tick late" on fastballs by Scherzer and Joaquin Benoit in Game 2. "We'll talk about being a little more ready for fastballs," Long said.

Five years ago, A-Rod appeared so out of sorts that Joe Torre batted him eighth in the season-ending Game 4 at Comerica Park. He finished the series 1-for-14 with a walk, and with concerns that he would never attain "True Yankee" status with a breakout postseason.

That narrative died a violent death with A-Rod's awesome October 2009, but he's still getting paid $31 million this year, and the fans still turn to him and expect greatness.

"One thing about the playoffs is one at-bat, one pitch can make a big difference," A-Rod said. "You're not looking to get six or seven hits. You're looking to get one or two big hits."

To be more precise, as this series shifts locales: He's looking to get out of the doghouse. And to pull the Yankees away from their fans' worst fears.