A-Rod keeps getting hits, but not big one he wants

CLEVELAND - It would only be natural, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, for Alex Rodriguez to be getting antsy for the chase for 600 to end.

"He has not said anything that would lead me to believe that he is eager to get it over with," Girardi said before last night's game at Progressive Field, "but I think it's only human nature."

After a thunderstorm delayed the start of the game 42 minutes, Rodriguez got plenty of cracks at No. 600 early on - one in each of the first three innings as the Yankees beat up Indians righthander Fausto Carmona, who came in 10-7 with a 3.51 ERA - but A-Rod came up empty.

At least in terms of becoming the seventh major leaguer to hit 600 home runs.

His final chance came in the eighth inning against Frank Herrmann. After fouling off three 3-and-2 pitches, Rodriguez popped out to rightfield.

A-Rod did reach a milestone in his fourth at-bat, but not the one he's been trying to reach since hitting No. 599 last Thursday. Against righthander Jess Todd, Rodriguez sliced a ball down the rightfield line for his 471st double, which tied Larry Walker for 74th all-time.

Rodriguez got up in the first inning after Mark Teixeira, who came in hitting .361 (30-for-83) in July, doubled with two outs.

A-Rod got ahead of Carmona 3-and-1 and sent his next pitch back up the middle and into centerfield for a single that gave the Yankees, and A.J. Burnett, a 1-0 lead.

The single made it 22 straight at-bats without a homer for A-Rod.

Rodriguez made it back to the plate during the Yankees' three-run second inning, coming up with two outs and Teixeira on second and Nick Swisher on first. A-Rod swung at Carmona's first pitch and popped to second. An RBI single by Brett Gardner and a two-run single by Teixeira that inning had already given the Yankees a 4-0 lead.

The Yankees batted around in a three-run third, driving Carmona from the game. Curtis Granderson's RBI triple, Gardner's RBI double and Swisher's RBI single helped Rodriguez get a third chance, though not against Carmona.

After Swisher's two-out single made it 7-0, Cleveland's Manny Acta called for righthander Hector Ambriz to face Teixeira. He walked to load the bases, bringing Rodriguez to the plate.

A-Rod took the first five pitches before fouling off a 3-and-2 pitch. He struck out swinging on Ambriz's next pitch, a 94-mph fastball.

Things settled down, from the Indians' pitchers standpoint, the next couple of innings, and Rodriguez didn't get up again until he led off the sixth against Todd. He fell behind 0-and-2 but went the other way on the next pitch, slapping a double down the rightfield line. It made him 8-for-25 since homering a week ago, hardly the statistics of an overanxious player trying to make something happen.

Still, after going 0-for-4 Tuesday night, A-Rod acknowledged he might be pressing just a bit.

"A few times over the last three or four days I've kind of come out of it a little bit, trying to swing a little too hard, maybe getting a little pull happy," Rodriguez said. "As long as I swing at strikes, good things are going to happen."

Good things did happen much of the night for Rodriguez and the Yankees, just not the big moment he, and they, have been waiting for.