Kathy Willens / AP

Alex Rodriguez gets a hug from Yankees manager Joe Torre, left, and Jason Giambi after a walk-off home run.

Rodriguez won the AL MVP award for the second time in 2005 but he rarely appeared comfortable last year. Fans booed him repeatedly, especially for his 24 errors. It was front-page news when he sunbathed shirtless on a hot day in Central Park last July, then made three errors that night against Seattle. His contract, the demands of Yankees fans and A-Rod’s standards for himself made it seem as though he walked to home plate with the Empire State Building on one shoulder and the Statue of Liberty on the other.

A big September left him with a .290 batting average, 35 homers and 121 RBIs, but then he went 1-for-14 against Detroit in the Yankees’ first-round playoff loss, dropping him to 4-for-41 (.098) without an RBI in his last 12 postseason games dating to 2004.

Rodriguez lost 12-14 pounds during the offseason and currently weights about 225, according to Boras. Kevin Long, the Yankees’ new hitting coach, went to Rodriguez’s Miami home and worked with him in A-Rod’s batting cage. They shortened his swing, examined video, tried to cut down on upper- and lower-body movement, worked on trying to swing less forcefully and with a more technical approach.

A-Rod also concentrated on trying not to dwell on previous at-bats when he goes up to the plate. He struck out his first two times up Wednesday and Thursday, then homered later both days. Cleveland, ahead 6-5, had the option of intentionally walking him in the series finale.

“In years past, maybe I would’ve outthought myself in that situation, with men on second and third. But I just wanted to see the ball and put a good swing on it and just trust what I saw,” Rodriguez said.

In a way, by not trying as hard to be liked, Rodriguez is being appreciated more. After homering for the fourth straight game, he gave brusque answers in a live interview with the Yankees’ own YES Network at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, as if he couldn’t wait to rush off. After Wednesday’s game, he was almost out the clubhouse door without talking to the media before Yankees media relations director Jason Zillo intercepted him.

“Certainly what we talked about is that media, the fans, everybody responds to the player that is performing,” Boras said. “The truth of it is, if a player performs well, we know what the fans are going to do. If a player doesn’t perform well, we know what the fans are going to do.”

For now, the fans are on his side. But A-Rod knows better than most how quickly that can change.

“He’s endured a lot, the fact that every day there was questions about him and what’s wrong,” Torre said. “Sort of nice to see him leave a man at third base and not have somebody ask you about it.”

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