Alex Rodriguez won’t play field in final Yankees game in Queens

During that game, a 4-2 Yankees win, A-Rod went 0 for 4 but did garner the 2,085th RBI of his career.

Rodriguez, who grew up in Miami, is expected to be in the lineup but will not be starting at third base as he had hoped as manager Joe Girardi nixed A-Rod’s request to return to his spot on the hot corner one final time. He didn’t pitch badly, but was lifted in the sixth after giving up one run on six hits.

The highlight of the night for Rodriguez was a groundout in the eighth inning that drove Brett Gardner home, providing the Yankees with an insurance run.

After more than a decade of on-field triumphs and off-field controversies with the New York Yankees, Alex Rodriguez will wrap his career with the Bronx Bombers on Friday without the season-long victory laps that former teammates Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera received during their final year in pinstripes.

The Marlins have had internal discussions about signing Rodriguez, which would most likely be after rosters expand on September 1 if it happens, according to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball. He sat Tuesday in the opener and flied out as a pinch hitter in the Yankees’ 9-4 win Wednesday – his first at-bat in more than a week.

“It’s gonna be unusual and surreal”, Rodriguez said earlier this week of his final appearance in pinstripes.

NY acquired Rodriguez from Texas in February 2004 for infielder Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named, who turned out to be Joaquin Arias – an infielder who drove in 95 runs over eight big league seasons. He was booed by Red Sox fans when he came to the plate in the second inning and had a soft lineout.

With Jeter coming into town for the 1996 World Series Championship reunion, the two of them will have time before the game to talk, even though their relationship had been a tumultuous one since the two of them shared the field.

“Whether it’s a farewell tour or a farewell week or a farewell game, I think he’s going to have the same feeling”, Berkowitz said. Since June 25, Rodriguez has seven hits in his last 55 at-bats and when his occasional start resulted in unproductive at-bats it gradually led to rookie Gary Sanchez becoming part of the designated hitter mix. That’s too bad too, since Ramirez busted out of an 0-for-16 slump with a 2-for-3 night, driving in Boston’s only two runs of the contest. Ramirez was checked by a trainer and stayed in the game.

“They’re passionate fans. They love their team”, he said.

Rodriguez’s Yankees contract pays him in monthly installments, and the last payment is due December 31, 2017.

Mike Montgomery (4-5) allowed a single and two walks to load the bases in the 11th before striking out Matt Carpenter.