Because even though it’s the World Series, two games and eight at-bats are more than enough reason to start ripping on Alex Rodriguez again:

A beast in the AL playoffs, Alex Rodriguez has become a bust in his first World Series.

Totally out of whack, swinging at shadows, his performance at the plate in Game 2 Thursday night mirrored his output in the opener. So far: 0 for 8 with six strikeouts.

Yes, it’s been a bit disappointing if you’re an A-Rod or Yankee fan, but nobody except Jeter could hit Cliff Lee in Game 1.  And in Game 2, A-Rod simply had a bad game.  Ryan Howard was 0-4 with 4 strikeouts (pretty much the worst game possible), but we haven’t heard a peep from the media because Ryan Howard is a big smiley cuddly bear and Alex Rodriguez is a phony premadonna who is selfish and cares only about his stats (so selfish that he offered to play third base when arriving in New York, by the way).  Pedro was dealing for the first six innings before slipping up a bit in the seventh, so just like with Cliff Lee, poor at-bats weren’t really an A-Rod specific phenomenon.

I kind of get tired defending this guy, but it’s just outrageous that he can be totally dominant for two playoff series and then have a couple of bad games and everyone’s ready to start psychoanalyzing him as mentally weak all over again.  We’ll see how he does in Game 3.

[CBS Sports]