A-Rod incenses Braden by stepping on mound in Yanks' 4-2 loss

OAKLAND, Calif. - Dallas Braden shut down the Yankees for six innings, then couldn't shut up about Alex Rodriguez - and it wasn't because of the triple play A-Rod started.

Upset about what he saw as a major breach of baseball etiquette, Braden ripped into the third baseman Thursday after the A's 4-2 victory in the series finale that snapped the Yankees' winning streak at six games.

"Those guys, from top to bottom, it's a classy organization. From top to bottom, they do it right," Braden said. "He should maybe just watch his captain [Derek Jeter] a little more often. It doesn't start and end with him over there at third."

Rodriguez singled with one out in the top of the sixth, and when Robinson Cano followed with a long foul ball, he rounded second and made it halfway to third. But on his way back to first, according to Braden, A-Rod cut across the mound - stepping on the rubber, no less.

Braden yelled at Rodriguez, and after Cano grounded into an inning-ending double play, he yelled at him again as he headed for the dugout. "He heard me ; he didn't understand what I said," Braden said. "After the double play, he was looking at me, he gives me the ear, like what did you say? So I made sure he understood me."

Not anywhere done, Braden added: "I don't throw 95, so the point might not get across from me, but any kind of disrespect like that, it's got to be handled. We have to talk about it, at least. And that's what we did. We talked about it."

A-Rod didn't seem impressed by Braden's point, though. He waved at him dismissively.

Said Joe Girardi: "Personally, I didn't see anything that happened, so I have no idea."

Rodriguez said he didn't remember if he actually did step on the mound and appeared amused more than anything by the supposed breach of protocol. "I've never heard of that in my career," he said.

As for Braden's message, he heard the first part. "He just told me to get off his mound," he said. "It was a little surprising. I've never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career."

Braden shot back, "He's right, I don't even have a handful of wins. I only have three. Do the math, A-Rod."

Rodriguez has some history of incensing the opposition, and though Braden didn't recall A-Rod's "Ha!" moment in Toronto in 2007 - when he distracted third baseman Howie Clark on a pop-up, the ball dropped and shortstop John McDonald became infuriated - he did bring up A-Rod's slapping the ball out of Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo's glove on a play at first in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.

"Was he trying to break up a double play at first? What was he doing?'' Braden said, adding: "I don't care if I'm Cy Young or I'm 25th man on the roster, if I got that ball in my hand and I'm out there on that mound, that's not your mound. You want to run across the mound? Go run laps in the bullpen. That's my mound. That's the bottom line."

Braden (3-0, 2.77) owned the mound this time, allowing only solo homers by Marcus Thames and Mark Teixeira, four other hits and a walk in six innings.

Kurt Suzuki's three-run homer off CC Sabathia in the first put the A's ahead for good. Sabathia (2-1, 3.00) gave up four hits in eight innings but walked six, his most since walking six in a 2004 game at the Coliseum, where he is 2-5 with a 5.95 ERA in 10 starts. "I walked their lefties four times," he said. "That's just ridiculous." A perfectly apt word for this game.