No matter what happens to the New York Yankees as the season winds down, 2007 will go down as the year that Alex Rodriguez proved his value as a New York Yankee:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alex Rodriguez reached 50 home runs for the first time in five seasons, and promptly added to his total.
A-Rod homered in consecutive at-bats against rookie Brian Bannister to set a single-season record for a third baseman, helping the New York Yankees overpower the Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday night.
Rodriguez just missed homering in three straight at-bats, flying out to the center field wall in the sixth, and was hit by a pitch from rookie Luke Hochevar in the seventh before coming out for a pinch runner.
He became the first Yankees player to reach 50 homers in a season since Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle did it in 1961. A-Rod joined Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as the only players in history to hit 50 homers in three different seasons.
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The Yankees, who remained three games ahead of Detroit in the wild-card race, are a season-best 18 games above .500 and moved within 51/2 games of AL East-leading Boston.
And a large part of that is due to the efforts of a certain third baseman.
