A-Rod makes the last out of the game, but not of his Yankee career — yet

12:38 AM ET

NEW YORK — As the ball left Alex Rodriguez’ bat — a lazy fly to shallow right on an 0-2 fastball that moseyed along at 89 mph — it was tough to suppress the suspicion that one had just seen not only the last out of a game, but quite possibly the last at-bat of A-Rod’s Yankees career.

After all, Rodriguez had delivered a remarkable valedictory-type address at his locker before the game, peppered with hedges and qualifiers and pseudo-farewells, at one point saying that if the Yankees no longer felt he could contribute, “then I have two beautiful daughters waiting for me in Miami.”

Earlier in the day, owner Hal Steinbrenner had dodged a direct question about whether the Yankees were about to cut ties with Rodriguez, meaning he was about to eat approximately $27 million in guaranteed money, which is a lot of shredded cabbage for any owner to stomach.

“We have not discussed anything about what we’re going to be doing in the hours and days to come,” he had said, adding that he had no idea where a New York tabloid had gotten the idea that A-Rod might well be released before the end of this dreadfully disappointing season.

And when manager Joe Girardi was asked — after the Yankees had been trounced by the Mets, 7-1, at CitiField to split the first two games of this home-and-home Subway Series — if that final at-bat might have been A-Rod’s last as a Yankee, he did not exactly handle the question with aplomb.

In fact, here is a verbatim transcript of what he said in an answer that lasted all of nine seconds: “I don’t necessarily think so, no. I mean, no, I mean, we have, I mean, like I said, I mean, my plans are for him to be there tomorrow with us, I mean, I haven’t, there have been discussions of that.”

But when asked in a follow-up whether he had decided whether or not to start Rodriguez at DH Wednesday night when the Mets start a lefty, Steven Matz, at Yankee Stadium, this manager who plans his lineups, schedules his off-days and maps out his pitching rotation days and sometimes weeks, in advance, said, “No, I have not decided that yet.”

Pinch hitter Alex Rodriguez flies out to right field for the final out of Tuesday’s loss. It was the first time in six at-bats dating back to July 30 that he put the ball in play. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

And oh yeah, the Yankees are calling up their prized catching prospect, …

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