A-Rod remains glued to bench

CLEVELAND — Carlos Beltran’s balky right hamstring has turned Alex Rodriguez into a very expensive hood ornament.

With Joe Girardi leery of playing Beltran in the outfield because of the lingering injury, Rodriguez has eight atbats in the last seven games. Six of those at-bats were Tuesday against White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon and Rodriguez had one hit, a double.

“When I hear my name, I will be ready to go in there. I am excited to go back in there,’’ Rodriguez said before the Yankees’ 5-4 win over the Indians Thursday night at Progressive Field.

When Rodriguez, who makes $21 million this season, gets into the lineup is a question Girardi wasn’t ready to answer. The Indians have three right-handed starters lined up for the weekend and Girardi didn’t give any indication Rodriguez would start against any of those games.

Rodriguez is hitting .198 (25-for-126) against righthanders and .220 with eight homers and 28 RBIs overall going into Friday night’s action. He is five homers away from reaching the 700 mark.

Aaron Hicks had started 10 of the previous 11 games while the Yankees waited for the switch-hitting outfielder to show something at the plate. Thursday night Joe Girardi started the right-handed hitting Rob

Refsnyder in right field and put Hicks on the bench.

“I thought I would give Ref another day and try to keep him going,’’ Girardi said of Refsnyder, who had 16 hits in the last 46 at-bats (.348). He went 1-for-1, walked and had a RBI sacrifice fly.

Hicks entered the game in the seventh, replacing Refsnyder for defensive purposes. He has four hits in 20 at-bats (.200) and is batting .200 overall.