"Finished answering all the questions about his silent bat, Alex Rodriguez was making his way through the mob scene near his locker after Sunday's game when he accidentally bumped into a reporter.

"Hardest thing I hit all day," he said with a laugh.

Yes, A-Rod was doing his best to downplay any notion that suddenly he has stepped back in time, before his 2009 postseason put to rest all the previous October failures and finally stamped him as a made man.

And obviously two games is no fair sample by which to judge a hitter. But there is nothing fair about the postseason, and A-Rod is not only 0-for-8 but was booed lustily during Sunday's 5-3 loss to the Tigers as if it were October of 2005, 2006, 2007 ..."