Stat(s) of the Day and A-Rod's Hip

Via Tyler Kepner, we have our stats of the day:

1) Courtesy of Elias, even including this past week, the Yankees are 11-6 this season in games started by pitchers who had never faced them before. Those starters, collectively, are 5-6 with a 5.08 E.R.A.

2) This one comes from Tom Verducci: Alex Rodriguez has the same road slugging percentage as the San Diego Padres’ David Eckstein. That is, away from the tight confines of Yankee Stadium, A-Rod’s slugging percentage is a meager .373.

Now that's not as bad as I thought. Kepner has the reason why:

When the Yankees lose to a pitcher few fans have heard of – Fernando Nieve and Craig Stammen, come on down – it naturally captures the attention of fans and reporters. But when they beat a pitcher like that, it’s no big deal.

And how about explaining A-Rod?

As for Rodriguez, who is 3 for his last 34 and hitting .212, he’s long overdue for his first game off since joining the team on May 8. Even Manager Joe Girardi admitted he probably should have rested him sooner. I spoke with A-Rod’s hip surgeon, Dr. Marc Philippon, and he agreed with the rest.

“Indirectly, he is still recovering from surgery, from a muscle standpoint,” Philippon said. “I think it’s important to give him some time off to allow the muscles to recover. His hip is doing very well, but he has to make sure his balance and his coordination are not affected by muscle fatigue. I would support giving him a little bit of a break, because it’s pretty exceptional to come back and play so many games in a row.”

Hold on. Hold on. I'm sure Tyler Kepner is a great investigative reporter. But you're telling me that I could write blog post after blog post about how A-Rod needs a rest, Tyler Kepner could speak to A-Rod's hip surgeon who said that "I think it's important to give him some time off to allow the muscles to recover", and yet the Yankees continued to play him every day without a rest? The Yankees couldn't have called his surgeon and gotten the same advice or watched him on the field and see that he was gassed? Was it worth leaving him in for all these games when he was hurting the team? ESPN's Stephania Bell predicted he'd be out 4 months and 2 months later he's supposedly in tip-top shape to be playing every day? Am I missing something here?

Update: I mean if Apple CEO Steve Jobs can have a liver transplant and return to work in two months, maybe anything is possible. Jeez