That Looks Much Better

Something funny happened in the 8th inning of last night's game, funnier than Al Albuquerque's balk and even funnier than his wild pitch into the stands.  Alex Rodriguez got 2 hits in the inning, his first and second of the series.  And not only that, he looked damn good doing it.  Up until those hits, I've been banging the "A-Rod is hurt" drum like Joey Jordison because he's looked so bad at the plate.  But last night, the smoothness and balance to his swing suddenly came back.

(Screen cap courtesy of MLB.com video)

Look at that.  The hips are rotated perfectly.  The arms are in time with the hip motion.  The weight is distributed perfectly.  And the timing is right on point with where the pitch was delivered.  That's the swing on his hit to lead off the inning, and the swing on his 2nd hit was just as pretty.  This is the swing we see when The Horse is on his game, and the 8th inning last night was the first time I remember seeing that swing since he came back.

Maybe this means the thumb isn't as bad as I thought.  Maybe it means that his other bumps and bruises are healed.  Maybe it means A-Rod really did just need to shake the rust off.  Whatever it means, the one thing we should all take from it is that The Horse might be starting to round back into form.  And if that's the case, his timing couldn't better.  A locked in Horse is a dangerous Horse, and it could spell good things for the rest of a lineup that started to stir last night.  I know I would not want to be in Doug Fister's cleats tomorrow night on the mound after seeing this take place last night.