Thursday, June 13, 2002
A-Rod ran through stop sign to start rally
The Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas — Alex Rodriguez had gone too far to stop. He was going to score. Rodriguez tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, running through third-base coach Steve Smith's stop sign to start a seven-run rally in the Texas Rangers' 10-4 win over the Reds Wednesday night.
“By the time I saw it, it was too late,” Rodriguez said. “There was no turning back. I wanted to score really bad.”
Rodriguez reached on the first of consecutive one-out walks by Scott Sullivan (3-2). He tied the game at 4 on Rafael Palmeiro's single, beating right fielder Juan Encarnacion's throw to the plate.
Rookie Kevin Mench hit a two-run single and Michael Young had a bases-loaded triple for the Rangers, who had lost 19 of their previous 26 games.
“Hopefully this will be a turning point,” Rodriguez said.
“We are capable of coming back and we showed it,” Mench said. “It is a good character-builder for us.”
Herbert Perry was intentionally walked by Danny Graves before Mench's tiebreaking single. After shortstop Juan Castro's error kept the inning going, Young tripled and Todd Greene had a sacrifice fly. Only two of the seven runs were earned.
“I've been much more surprised that this sort of thing hasn't happened more often,” Rangers manager Jerry Narron said of the big inning. “This was just the sort of thing we've been needing.”
John Rocker (1-1), who pitched a scoreless eighth, got the win. He struck out two, walked one and was helped by a double play.
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A-Rod ran through stop sign to start rally
