Alex Rodriguez Takes Blame for His Poor Postseason Play DETROIT - Close to 100 reporters and TV cameras packed a multipurpose room down the hall from the Yankee clubhouse on Thursday, awaiting the celebrity pinch-hitter. In walked Alex Rodriguez, in dark slacks, with a cream-colored jacket over an open-collared white print shirt. Alex Rodriguez, who was benched again, flied out as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of Game 4 of the A.L.C.S. More Photos  Rodriguez spent the next 10 minutes taking ownership of his horrible postseason, vowing to be better next year and professing his love of New York City and his desire to remain a Yankee. A smooth, virtuoso performance, it came from someone who was anything but smooth this postseason, leading his manager, Joe Girardi, to remove him three times for pinch-hitters and finally drop him from the starting lineup in Games 3 and 4 of the American League Championship Series. Entering Game 4 as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning Thursday, Rodriguez went 0 for 2. He finished the postseason 3 for 25 (.120) with 12 strikeouts, and did not drive in a run. He was 1 for 9 (.111) in the A.L.C.S. Repeatedly, Rodriguez denied any rift between him and Girardi or General Manager Brian Cashman. He said the benching was his fault alone. "The thing is about this whole situation, if I'm playing my game, Joe has no choice but to play me," Rodriguez said. And if I'm not playing my game, then he's open for options. I've got to look in the mirror. Rodriguez's feebleness against right-handers - 0 for 18 with 12 strikeouts - prompted Girardi to sit him against Justin Verlander in Game 3 and Detroit starter Max Scherzer on Thursday. In a tortured bit of symmetry, the left-hander Drew Smyly's appearance in relief for Detroit in the sixth inning Thursday brought Rodriguez out of the dugout to bat for the left-handed-batting Raul Ibanez. It was Ibanez, of course, who pinch-hit for Rodriguez in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the division series against Baltimore and homered to tie the game. Ibanez stayed in that game and homered again in the 12th to win it, 3-2. The circumstances Thursday were much less dramatic, but Girardi needed a long ball with the Yankees trailing, 6-1, with runners at the corners and two outs. "That's why I sent him up there," Girardi said. You're guaranteed a spot against him against the left-handed pitcher, and he swung the bat good against them all year long. But Rodriguez could not come through. With a 1-1 count, he swung hard and missed a high fastball, and then he flied out softly to center field. "I actually felt pretty good, relaxed," Rodriguez said. He made a pretty good pitch. I put a good swing on it, and it got in on me a little bit. The way the Yankee lineup turned over ensured Rodriguez an at-bat in the ninth inning. Fortunately for Rodriguez, he was the second man due up and not the third, meaning he could not make the final out of the season. Facing another left-hander, his former Yankee teammate Phil Coke, Rodriguez took three balls and then a strike before grounding out to shortstop. "Look, I know it was difficult for Joe," Rodriguez said. I know Joe didn't want to sit me. It was something that was not easy for him. But again, if I do what I do, Joe doesn't have a choice, and neither does Cashman, and neither does anybody. If I am who I know I can be, they will worry about other guys. Girardi said he planned to talk to Rodriguez in the off-season, as he does with every player. "As far as I know, we're O.K.," Girardi said. I don't have any signals that he's mad at me. Now, if there are things that I have to do, I'm going to do them. The one thing I don't want to focus on is Alex, in a sense, because it wasn't just him that didn't hit. You know, if the other guys hit, one guy's struggles aren't going to show as much. But when you have so many guys struggling, and you're Alex Rodriguez, he is going to be the one that people talk about the most. Emphatically, Rodriguez said he planned to be a Yankee next year. "I've never thought about going to another team," Rodriguez said. My focus is to stay here. Let's make that very, very clear. 2, I don't expect to be mediocre. I expect to do what I've done for a long time.