Farewell A-Rod, hello Yankees’ new era

NEW YORK — The day after seemingly his last Major League game, Alex Rodriguez’s nameplate was still above his locker in the Yankees’ clubhouse, although the team had given him his unconditional release as promised before Saturday’s 8-4 victory over the Rays.

Manager Joe Girardi was sufficiently recovered from Friday night’s emotional postgame news conference when he was in tears following the stress of the week’s events. There was the 20th anniversary celebration of the 1996 World Series team, including the return of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams.

As manager, Girardi presided over the final games of the Core Four — Jeter only two years ago — but never did he show the emotion he did on Friday night.

“Yeah, it probably was because of the abruptness of it, in a sense,” Girardi said on Saturday. “Like I said yesterday, No. 1, when the other guys left you had more time to prepare for it. No. 2, I didn’t come to the park the next day and not see them. The season ends.

“And there was the strain of the entire week. I’m going to miss this guy. I’m going to miss him.”

And finally, the Yankees called up Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge, who became the first teammates in Major League history to homer in their initial big league at-bats during the same game. They did so in back-to-back fashion with two outs in the second inning.

Just a typical Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

“It goes with the territory,” said Joe Torre, the manager of that 1996 team and every Yankees team through 2007, all of them making the postseason, four of them winning the World Series.

It was one of the most chaotic two-week …

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