Alex Rodriguez to have knee surgery; out 4-to-6 weeks(Photo-Video)

NEW YORK – The news deflated the stragglers in the Yankee clubhouse who hadn’t already sprinted out the door to the All-Star break.
Alex Rodriguez needs surgery on his sore right knee.

He will undergo an arthroscopic procedure today at the University of Miami to repair a slight tear of his meniscus. Rodriguez will miss four to six weeks.
Miami-based orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lee Kaplan will perform the surgery.
“It’s a huge blow, man,” Robinson Cano said. “To lose a guy like him, that’s the kind of guy you really need in your lineup, a guy who puts up good numbers, a guy who produces. A guy a pitcher doesn’t want to face.
“It’s a big, big loss to lose a guy like him.”
Rodriguez decided Sunday to have the surgery after being examined by Kaplan and discussing his options with team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad. The tear had been discovered in an MRI on Friday after manager Joe Girardi noticed Rodriguez was not driving the ball and teammates remarked that he was not running normally.
Rodriguez, who turns 36 later this month, had hit .321 with nine RBI in the 14 games since he injured his knee June 19 running the bases at Wrigley Field.
But he hasn’t hit a home run since June 11, a span of 85 at-bats — the longest single-season drought of his career. The 14-time All-Star has hit at least 30 home runs in 13 consecutive seasons, but has just 13 this year in 305 at-bats. He is hitting .295 with 52 RBI this season.
The loss of the Yankees’ cleanup hitter until early-to-mid-August is a blow to a team that made it to the All-Star break having survived without Derek Jeter for 18 games and starter Phil Hughes for 2½ months. It also dealt with the decimation of its bullpen due to injuries.
“There’s no doubt we’re going to miss him, but we need to find a way,” Girardi said in a statement. “As I’ve said several times already this year, some people are going to have to step up. Up to this point, this team has.”
A team spokesman said he did not know if Rodriguez would return in four weeks or would be able to merely perform baseball activities in that timeframe.
Rodriguez discussed the injury with CC Sabathia, who has twice suffered a meniscus tear in his knee.
“We definitely want him in the lineup, but we want him to be right, and he wasn’t the past couple of days,” Sabathia said.
He added that he felt healthy after about four weeks following surgery. But that may not translate to a position player.
“Playing third is a lot different than pitching,” Sabathia said. “Running the bases is a lot different than pitching. Swinging the bat and having to be driving the ball is a lot different.”
Eduardo Nunez ( .277, 3 HRs, 14 RBI) will fill in at third base, as he did this weekend.
“I feel bad for him,” he said. “You never want to see a teammate hurt. If they need me, I can do it.”

Sabathia Throws Complete Game, and Yankees Rally in Ninth for Win

On the day the Yankees found out that their prized off-season acquisition, Rafael Soriano, was going to be shut down indefinitely, C. C. Sabathia did exactly what they needed, giving the bullpen a day off by pitching a complete game.

The offense did the rest. The Yankees scored two runs in the eighth and two with two outs in the ninth — the final one on Mark Teixeira’s single — to rally for a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

With one out in the ninth and the Yankees trailing by a run, Jorge Posada electrified the crowd with a double to right-center off Frank Francisco. He was given a standing ovation as he was removed for pinch-runner Chris Dickerson, who moved to third on a groundout by Derek Jeter.

Curtis Granderson singled home Dickerson to tie the score, then stole second base before Teixeira singled through the infield, scoring him to make a winner out of Sabathia (5-3).

Teixeira may have been the hero, but he credited Posada’s double with getting things started, saying: “That’s huge. If that doesn’t happen, it may not have ended up the way it did.”

Posada, who is hitting .183, said the victory could be a sign of good things to come.

“It can turn it around, it really can,” he said. “It’s a good feeling in here when you win a game like that.”

Sabathia, who retired the final 16 Toronto batters, outlasted the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero, who pitched seven dominant innings but was let down by his bullpen.

It was just Sabathia’s second complete game in Yankee Stadium since he joined the Yankees three seasons ago, though he pointed out that on a team with Mariano Rivera, complete games are hardly necessary.

“When you’ve got a closer like Mo, eight innings is really a complete game,” he said. “So I just have to go out there and be able to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win.”

Russell Martin got the Yankees off to a good start in the second with a home run to left field. It was his ninth homer of the season, breaking a tie for most home runs by a catcher this season with Toronto’s J. P. Arencibia.

Sabathia then faltered a bit, giving the run back in the top of the third. He allowed sharp singles by Rajai Davis, Yunel Escobar and Corey Patterson before striking out Jose Bautista on a checked swing to end the inning.

Things became messy for Sabathia in the top of the fourth as the Blue Jays scored three runs, but then both pitchers settled down into the duel that many anticipated, with Romero facing just one over the minimum number of batters during the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, and Sabathia pitching five perfect innings to close out the game.

In the bottom of the eighth, Granderson led off with a double. After a groundout by Teixeira and a strikeout by Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano doubled to score Granderson and came home on a single by Martin. The struggling Nick Swisher popped out to right field to end the threat.

On top of his gutsy performance, Sabathia seemingly found a way to deal with the red-hot Bautista, who hit his major-league-leading 19th home run Monday night. Bautista went 0 for 4, accounting for the final out in four innings.

“I just try to move it around; he’s a tough hitter,” Sabathia said of his success against Bautista. “I just try to throw strikes to all parts of the zone. It worked out tonight.”

It did not work out for Francisco, who blew his second save of the season

Toronto Manager John Farrell said: “To their credit, Posada jump-started their offense in the ninth with that double. We just couldn’t close it out.”

Soriano, who felt soreness in his injured elbow during his throwing session Monday, will be examined Wednesday by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. The Yankees are withholding the results of Soriano’s latest magnetic resonance imaging test until Andrews has had a chance to examine it.

The latest news seemed to concern Manager Joe Girardi.

“I really thought that we would have him getting ready to possibly go out on a rehab assignment shortly,” Girardi said before the game, “and that doesn’t seem to be the case now.”

INSIDE PITCH

Derek Jeter was the Yankees’ designated hitter. When asked before the game if it was a half-day for Jeter, Joe Girardi joked: “A half-day, yeah. Kids like half-days.” Jeter went 0 for 5 and remains 25 hits short of 3,000. ... Nick Swisher got the start in right field after two consecutive days off. Despite facing a left-hander, Swisher was unable to break out of his season-long slump, going 0 for 4 and lowering his batting average to .208. ... Reliever Dave Robertson will travel to his hometown, Tuscaloosa, Ala., after Wednesday’s game to survey hurricane damage and start a charity to raise money for recovery.

Beckett shines again as Sox dump Yankees

It was at Yankee Stadium just shy of a year ago when Josh Beckett was pulled in the fifth inning, having injured his back. Two months on the disabled list followed. From there, a bad season only got worse.

It led to questions about whether Beckett’s time as a frontline starter had come to an end, a theory bolstered when manager Terry Francona didn’t start him until the fourth game of the season.

Beckett has instead looked like the ace he once was.

Back in the Bronx, the righthander’s revitalization continued last night with six brilliant innings as the Red Sox slammed the Yankees, 6-0, before a sold-out crowd of 48,790.

Beckett (3-1) allowed four hits, all singles, with two walks and nine strikeouts. He has thrown 18 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, dropping his earned run average to 1.75.

“We had a lot of confidence in him. We always have,’’ Francona said. “He worked hard. He said at the end of last year that’d come back with a vengeance and I think he has.’’

Adrian Gonzalez’s three-run home run in the seventh inning off CC Sabathia (3-3) helped secure the win for Beckett, who has not allowed a run in 14 innings against the Yankees this season. Jacoby Ellsbury, who had two hits to raise his average to .301, added a two-run double.

“I’m making pitches when I need to and guys are playing great defense. That’s really it, there’s no secret to it,’’ said Beckett, who made up for lacking a good curveball with an effective changeup and his best cut fastball of the year.

The Sox, 4-1 against the Yankees this season, will have Jon Lester on the mound tonight as they try for the sweep and to get to .500 for the first time this season.

For the Yankees, it was a night of pinstriped turmoil on and off the field.

Jorge Posada, one of the team’s respected veterans, was scratched from the lineup 40 minutes before the first pitch after reportedly telling manager Joe Girardi that he refused to bat ninth. That led to an impromptu in-game press conference for general manager Brian Cashman in the back of the Yankee Stadium press box.

Once the game started, the Yankees lost their fourth straight and never came close to scoring. They have dropped 8 of 11 overall.

Sabathia allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks, falling to the Sox for the second time this season.

The Sox appeared to have Sabathia in trouble in the first inning. Ellsbury was hit by a pitch and then took third on a soft single to center by Dustin Pedroia (3 for 4).

But poor situational hitting, an issue with the Sox all season, was displayed again. Gonzalez, an RBI machine for the last few weeks, struck out swinging at a high fastball.

Kevin Youkilis then struck out on a slider, leaving him 0 for 11 with eight strikeouts with a runner on third and fewer than two outs. David Ortiz had the final chance and struck out on a slider in the dirt. In a span of 13 pitches, Sabathia ended the threat.

Beckett had a similar inning. After singles by Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson, he struck out Mark Teixeira, got Alex Rodriguez to foul to first base, and struck out Robinson Cano.

Both pitchers got on a roll from there.

Sabathia had retired 12 straight going into the fifth inning when Jed Lowrie singled to right field. Carl Crawford followed with a single up the middle with one out. Sabathia then inexplicably walked Jason Varitek on four pitches.

Ellsbury made him pay for that mistake by ripping a slider into left-center for a two-run double.

The Yankees decided to intentionally walk Pedroia, who has been slumping, in order to get to the scalding-hot Gonzalez.

But it made sense given that righthanders were hitting .280 against Sabathia coming into the game and lefties were at .182.

The strategy paid off as Gonzalez broke his bat on the second pitch, a sinker, and grounded into a 5-4-3 double play that ended the inning.

The Sox added to their lead in the seventh. Mike Cameron drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Varitek lined an RBI single into right field to make it 3-0. It was Varitek’s first RBI against a lefthanded pitcher this season.

With two outs, Pedroia kept the inning alive with a single. This time, with first base occupied, the Yankees faced Gonzalez and he lined a fastball over the wall in right field.

Hitless to that point, Gonzalez told Francona he would look for a ball inside and take a swing like Ichiro Suzuki. He got that pitch, rotated his hips early, and flicked the ball over the fence.

“He amazes me. When you say you’re going to do it and you do it, that’s pretty impressive,’’ Francona said.

The home run was the fifth in four games for Gonzalez and his seventh in eight games. He leads the American League with 34 RBIs.

It’s no big deal, apparently.

“I usually go through these stretches once or twice a year,’’ Gonzalez said.

That was the night for Sabathia and Girardi, who was ejected by plate umpire Mike Winters after he made a trip to the mound.