Rodriguez Returnts to Yankees: Alexander the Great

Alex Rodriguez made his return to the Yankees lineup Friday night, and it was triumpant.

The Yankees broke their five-game losing streak, and on the first pitch that he saw of the season, Rodriguez drove a three-run homerun over the left-field wall.

The other stories of the game were CC Sabathia and his battery mate, Francisco Cervelli.

Sabathia pitched a complete-game shutout, walking one and striking out eight with four hits allowed.

Cervelli made his first career start and called a great game, threw out a runner at second, had his first Major League hit, walked, and had a sac-bunt. CC Sabathia got real emotional at the end, pumping his fist and screaming, which is good to see.

In that one swing, Alex Rodriguez had more homeruns than his replacements had in 28 games. He also had three RBI, compared to the 10 compiled by the group replacing him.  And to be fair, of those 10 RBI, three were scored on a ball lost in the sun. He also was flawless in the field and seemed to bring life to the team. I hope he stays clean and just concentrates on baseball and the Yankees winning.

They showed this stat on YES tonight: With A-Rod, the Yankees win about .600 percent of their games, compared to .465 percent without him—that says a lot.

The Yankees need A-Rod to win, and of course, if CC and the rest of them pitch this way, they will win most games. I only hope this is the start of the turnaround.