Doubleheader Becomes Night Game Becomes Yankee Win

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The New York Sun

Alex Rodriguez and Orlando Hernandez rewarded fans at Yankee Stadium for their long Labor Day wait.


On another unusual day in the Bronx, an afternoon doubleheader became a single night game because Hurricane Frances caused the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to arrive three hours after the scheduled start.


Rodriguez then hit a three-run double, his first hit with the bases loaded in more than a year, and El Duque won his seventh straight decision to lead the Yankees over the Devil Rays 7-4 last night, Tampa Bay’s season-high eighth straight loss.


Fouled up by the hurricane, which caused consecutive postponements against Detroit on Saturday and Sunday at Tropicana Field, the Devil Rays’ charter didn’t even take off from Florida until five minutes before the doubleheader was scheduled to start at 3 p.m.


Major league baseball then switched it to a single night game at 7 p.m., just one hour after the Devil Rays arrived at the ballpark.


The Yankees, with “1G” still up on the scoreboard to record the first-game score, asked the commissioner’s office to award them a forfeit, a request commissioner Bud Selig later rejected. Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said the other game will be rescheduled soon, possibly during the remainder of the series, which runs through Thursday. The Yankees threatened to refuse to make up the game this week.


Fans started entering the ballpark at 11 a.m. and were given free hot dogs and soda during the eight-hour wait. They applauded loudly during batting practice and were unusually lively during the early innings. While 44,422 tickets were sold, the crowd appeared to peak at about 30,000.


Rodriguez had been 0-for-10 with the bases loaded this season and hitless in 11 at-bats with the bases full since July of 2003. He batted in the no. 2 slot for the first time this year, inserted between Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield.


Jorge Cantu’s first major league homer had put the Devil Rays ahead 1-0 in the second against Hernandez (7-0), who has become the Yankees’ ace.


After Sheffield’s third-inning RBI grounder and Miguel Cairo’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees ahead 2-1 against Doug Waechter (3-7), Rodriguez came up later in the fourth and grounded a double under the glove of a diving B.J. Upton.


Pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra had a run scoring single off Lance Carter in the eighth, and Jeter followed with a sacrifice fly.


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