"Joe Girardi says the name of the player and the city he plays in has made more of Alex Rodriguez's sore right knee than it would if it involved anybody else in any other city.

The Yankees manager said Rodriguez, won't be limited possibly playing four ALDS games in four days and two cities. But he could DH in one of them.

"I really think if it wasn't New York and it wasn't Alex this wouldn't have been such a big deal, that a guy was a little cranky [after] he played on turf a couple of days," Girardi said of his third baseman, who was scratched from the final game of the season against the Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday night due to the surgically repaired knee being sore."