A-Rod’s first start at first base did not go smoothly

Coming off their 19-inning loss that began on Friday night and ended early Saturday morning, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi decided to give first baseman Mark Teixeira — who actually turned 35 in the middle of that game — the afternoon off on Saturday.

Enter, Alex Rodriguez, who for the first time in his 21-year major league career made a start at first base. In fact, in his 2,573 career games, it’s the first time A-Rod started at a position other than third base, shortstop, or designated hitter, and it’s the first time he’s started anywhere in the field since Sept. 10, 2013.

Needless to say, some rust was to be expected. When you add in the new position, which A-Rod was only able to try for a handful of innings in spring training, you have the recipe for some potentially awkward moments. And it turned out awkward would be an understatement.

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On A-Rod’s first chance of the game, things were fine. He handled a routine ground ball from Brock Holt without any complication. That’s to be expected though, since the act of fielding a ground ball is not what’s foreign to A-Rod.

On his next chance, A-Rod looked all out of sorts as he was unable to handle a low throw from shortstop Didi Gregorius. It’s easy to see what went wrong. A-Rod was stuck between catching the ball on the fly or potentially having to pick it from the dirt and got handcuffed. It’s a tricky read for an inexperienced first baseman, but it’s a ball that must be caught.

From that point on, A-Rod was error free, but no less awkward. In fact, on just about every throw that followed, A-Rod was literally using two hands to secure it. It’s how we’re all taught growing, but rarely, if ever, do we see first baseman actually using two hands.

His footwork was questionable as well. On most throws, he was not positioned well to react to low, high or wide throws. That was evidenced clearly on his error, and it may have cost the Yankees an out on a high and wide throw from Chase Headley in the eighth. The throw ended up pulling Rodriguez off the bag, though it’s possible a more skilled first baseman would have had a better chance to handle it.

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That miscue, for the record, came with the bases empty and twos outs. Three batters later, Boston had three unearned runs on Brock Holt’s bases clearing double, which helped secure their 8-4 victory.

“There was a lot of action over there today,” Rodriguez said of his performance after the game. “Not like I needed more evidence to tell you how great Mark Teixeira is and has been for so many years, but … my head is spinning.”

We don’t doubt that at all, and it really isn’t A-Rod’s fault to begin with. He was put in a difficult position that he clearly wasn’t ready to handle on Saturday. With more time, he’d become more comfortable, but it’s worth wondering how much more time the Yankees can afford to give him.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813

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