Yankees and Alex Rodriguez make themselves at home with 2-1 victory over Dodgers

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Alex Rodriguez is the one Yankee who refused to get all weepy-eyed at the thought of being reunited with Joe Torre in the Dodgers-Yankees series. Indeed, he refused to even talk about him.

Torre said there’s no rift on his part, and since Rodriguez isn’t talking about it, speculation is he’s still miffed that Torre batted him eighth in the 2006 playoffs and later repeated some less-than-flattering things said about him in his book, ‘The Yankee Years.’There was no emotional embrace before the game Friday, Rodriguez staying clear of Torre around the batting cage, but there may have been an emotional moment.

At least for Rodriguez.

After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Manny Ramirez single, Rodriguez doubled and scored on a Jorge Posada hit in the second and then hit a solo home run in the sixth to give the Yankees a 2-1 victory.

The loss was the Dodgers’ seventh in their last eight games. It dropped them four games back of the Padres in the National League West.

Vicente Padilla, in just his second game back since coming off the disabled list with a sore elbow, pitched better than the Dodgers had a right to expect.

Padilla (1-2) went seven innings, allowing the two runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out seven.

And, oh yeah, hit one batter.

In the fourth inning, Padilla hit the leadoff man in the butt with a fastball. That would be Robinson Cano, who came in leading the Yankees with 14 home runs, 50 RBI and a .362 batting average.

Padilla had a reputation for hitting batters while at Texas, which reportedly was one of the reasons the Rangers decided to move him.

This being the National League, however, pitchers have to hit. Which Yankees starter CC Sabathia kinda noticed.

When Padilla came to bat in the fifth, Sabathia hit him in the calf and then stared him down as Posada sort of walked Padilla to first.

It was big-boy baseball, N.L. style. Sabathia (9-3) was in control throughout. He gave up only four hits, all singles in his eight innings. He walked three and struck out seven. And hit one batter.

Torre’s old pal, Mariano Rivera, pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 17th save.

--Steve Dilbeck