Posada starts and delivers 2-run homer

CINCINNATI -- Interleague play couldn't have come at a worst time for Jorge Posada.

Tuesday night's rainout and subsequent doubleheader Wednesday, conversely, worked out quite well for the designated hitter.

Posada, red hot when this trip started but relegated to pinch-hitting duty with no designated hitter in National League parks, got the start Wednesday afternoon at first base in place of Mark Teixeira in the first game of the Yankees' doubleheader against the Reds.

He came through in a big way, smacking a tie-breaking two-run homer on a Mike Leake curveball in the sixth inning that was the difference in the Yankees' 4-2 victory.

"A get-me-over curveball," Posada said.

"Huge hit for us," Joe Girardi said. "A big lift for us."

Posada had been riding a nine-game hitting streak, hitting .457 (16-for-35), entering interleague play.

"When you pinch hit, it's a little different," said Posada, 0-for-2 with a walk as a pinch hitter the first three games of this trip that started in Chicago. "It's tougher coming off the bench not knowing who you're going to face."

The spurt Posada experienced at home before the trip helped raise his average from .169 to .226 and after going 1-for-2 with a walk in Wednesday's first game, Posada was at .227. Better, certainly, than .169 but still not something he's thrilled to see on the scoreboard. In the second game, Posada came in as pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh inning and grounded out.

"I think it's really a matter of feeling good at the plate and being a little bit more aggressive and trying to get your pitch and stuff like that," Posada said. "I don't see myself as a .227 hitter, either, so hopefully I can keep doing what I'm doing lately."

Girardi traced Posada's success to the four-game series in Detroit May 2-5. Even though the DH went 4-for-16 in the series -- he had two hits in each of the first two games -- it was the first instance when Posada hit the ball consistently hard. Posada is hitting .321 (27-for-84) in 29 games since May 8.

"I thought that's when it really started to happen for him when he swung the bat well," Girardi said of the Detroit series. "And he's continued to do that for us. As we've said, Jorgie can be a big part of our offense."

The homer off Leake, Posada's seventh of the season, snapped a homerless streak of 126 at-bats, the second-longest drought of his career.

"Home runs happen," Posada said. "I wasn't trying to hit one, they just happen for me. I'm happy when they do happen, but I'm not trying to go out there and try to hit a home run."

Posada found out he was going to play Tuesday night when he received a text message from Girardi, who didn't want Teixeira playing both games.

Girardi publicly has stood by Posada, even after the two had a lengthy heart-to-heart after the veteran pulled himself from the lineup May 14 before a game against the Red Sox. Posada was slated to hit ninth that night. Girardi said, as a result of their talk, his relationship with Posada has improved. "When you go through tough times and you go through relationships where there's stress on them, when you get to the other side, they're always better," Girardi said.

Said Posada: "He's been in my corner. He's been pushing me and it's good to have a guy that's going to be there for you, and he's been doing that for me."