BOSTON — The booing, which cascaded down from the upper deck the moment Alex Rodriguez stepped out of the dugout, lasted throughout his at-bat, and was still going strong with a 3-0 count.
The Fenway crowd had waited all night for the chance to abuse the most hated man in pinstripes, even if took them eight innings to get there.
A-Rod was out of the starting lineup — benched by Joe Girardi, who’d seen enough in his slugger’s 5-for-37 slump to decide the Yankees were better off with Garrett Jones in the DH slot. That is, until A-Rod entered the game as a pinch hitter and went to work on Junichi Tazawa’s sitting-duck fastball.