TAMPA, Fla. – The New York Yankees had a scare – but apparently nothing more – when third baseman Alex Rodriguez was hit in the face by a deflected ball and left Wednesday night’s spring training game against the Boston Red Sox.

The reigning AL MVP was taken to the hospital as a precaution. A CT scan was negative, and he was diagnosed with a bruised left cheekbone.

“I’m very fortunate,” said Rodriguez, who is not expected to miss Thursday’s flight to Tokyo for the Yankees’ March 30 regular-season opener. “I have no doubts I’m going.”

Brian Daubach was on first base when Kevin Millar doubled to left field. Hideki Matsui fielded the ball and threw to third, but it hit Daubach on the leg as he slid and ricocheted into Rodriguez’s face below his left eye.

Yankees trainer Gene Monahan ran out to tend to Rodriguez and lead him off the field.

“He thought he got hit by a knee. That’s how hard it was,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said after the Yankees beat Boston 8-6 to sweep the two-game exhibition series. “He didn’t know what it was.”

“It got him good,” Boston third base coach Dale Sveum said. “It wasn’t a grazing blow at all. You could hear it. You know it hit flesh.”

When he spoke to reporters in the Yankees clubhouse later in the game, Rodriguez’s cheek was swollen and reddened under his left eye. He said he had no problems seeing.

It was “a freak thing. I don’t remember much about the play,” Rodriguez said after doctors checked him out. “I feel pretty good now. I just felt like I got my bells rung pretty good. I’m very fortunate.”

Rodriguez said he was thinking of a high school injury in 1993, when he was hit in the face by an errant throw that went into the dugout. That one broke his cheekbone.

“I did flash back,” he said. “My first inclination was to see if I lost any teeth.”

Boston starter Tim Wakefield allowed five runs and seven hits in 4 1-3 innings in his first game against the Yankees since allowing Aaron Boone’s game-winning homer in the 11th inning in Game 7 of last year’s ALCS. Wakefield had allowed just one run over nine innings in his previous three starts. Yankees starter Donovan Osborne, who is competing for the final spot in the rotation, gave up four runs and five hits over five innings in the victory. David McCarty hit a three-run homer in the fourth to give Boston a 4-2 lead. The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the fourth on Matsui’s RBI triple and a run-scoring grounder by Sierra.

Jason Giambi had a run-scoring single and Sal Fasano drove in a run with a grounder in the fifth that put the Yankees ahead 6-4.

Notes: Erick Almonte replaced Rodriguez in the field and went 1-for-3. After the game, Almonte was given his unconditional release. Almonte also filled in for Jeter last year when he was out with a shoulder injury..

… The Yankees also sent Fasano, a catcher, to the minor league camp. “It was a numbers thing,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “This will give him a chance somewhere else.” … Ramirez has seven RBIs in his past five games. … The Yankees beat Boston 11-7 on March 7 in Fort Myers in the only other spring meeting between the teams.

AP-ES-03-24-04 2300EST

Documentary will look back at 2003

An upcoming documentary about the 2003 Boston Red Sox season has footage from Fenway Park, the clubhouse and the front office. What it doesn’t have is a name – and that’s where the members of Red Sox Nation come in.

“We’ve been in such a race to get this ready as a curtain raiser for the 2004 season that we haven’t even had time to finalize the movie’s title,” the film’s producer, Bob Potter, said Wednesday. “Since the fans are what this movie is all about, we thought we’d enlist them – and their highly personal opinions of the Sox – to help us come up with a name.”

Fans can log onto the Red Sox Web site until 11 a.m. EST Thursday to vote from among four choices: “Another Season,” “Fenway Blues,” “Red Sox Blues” and “This Is the Year.”

The documentary, scheduled to open in Boston on May 7 and go wider in following weeks, chronicles the relationship between the baseball team and its fervent fans.

“Though I’ve been a lifelong sports fan, I’ve never seen such an intense involvement between players and viewers and between a team – anywhere, of any sort – and its fans,” said Jeff Sackman, president of THINKFilm, which is releasing the documentary.

The film follows last season from spring training to the American League championship series, in which the Sox were five outs away from beating the rival New York Yankees in Game 7.

Instead of having a shot at winning their first World Series since 1918, the Red Sox ended up losing 6-5 in 11 innings.