The Yankees always believed this version of Carlos Rodon was there, lurking inside his pinstripe jersey, even with the wild swings in his pitching – and mound persona – that sometimes made his outings come undone.
But seeing peak Rodon, in the playoff fishbowl, with all the hopes and, let’s face it, potential anguish, of 47,264 souls at the Stadium riding every pitch? That did not happen in his first outing. Now that it has, it might just make the Yankees believe they’ve got another ace-level arm at a time of year when it could pay off in the biggest way possible.
On a chilly, 50-degree night, Rodon fired six sensational innings at the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, leading the Yankees to a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. It was Rodon’s first career postseason win. He allowed just one run and three hits while striking out nine and walking none.
Rodon totaled 25 swings and misses, the most by a Yankee pitcher in a postseason game in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
“He was great,” said Giancarlo Stanton, who, along with Juan Soto, homered for the Yankees. “He was the driver. Juan got us going on the offensive side, but Carlos was holding them down and giving us a chance to score.”
It’s not that Rodon hasn’t pitched well before. He won 16 games during the regular season, after all, and he’s used his nifty fastball-slider combo to overwhelm hitters, giving the Yankees glimpses. But he brought an 11.37 ERA in three previous postseason outings into his start Monday.
His most recent one, in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Royals, started beautifully but fizzled. Images of him rolling off the mound, howling, after strong early innings did not mesh well with the rest of his outing – he ultimately gave up four runs over 3.2 innings. His start was the only game of the series the Yankees lost and, Rodon himself admitted, he may have been too hyped. Even Aaron Boone wondered if being “over-amped” had led to Rodon feeling extra fatigue.
But on Monday, when the Yankees got the postseason lion they hoped they had signed two winters ago, the lion wasn’t roaring and that was a good thing.
After his last outing, Rodon made a point of watching how Gerrit Cole handled the emotions, the ups and downs, of an outing. Cole in Game 4 was a clinic of pitcher robotics, essentially. Stone-faced, he’d just walk off the mound when finished with an inning. Rodon sought to mimic Cole.
“There’s no screaming, there’s no, you know, fist-pumping or anything,” Rodon said. “He walks across the line into the dugout. It’s not that hard. It’s just being mindful of it and being focused on the next pitch.”
The more-chill demeanor worked.
“I mean, that was a dominant performance in Game 1 of the Championship Series,” Boone said. “So that was really good to see. But just how in command he was because he is intense. He is emotional at times. And I thought he commanded all that so well, and that’s what he’s capable of.”
“Obviously, there was some noise around just how the outing ended last time after being so sharp early,” pitching coach Matt Blake added. “So to see him come and just complete six solid innings, I thought, was huge for everybody, including him. Just being able to put that outing behind him.”
This one, certainly, will be more fun for Rodon to concentrate on. It started with a difficult at-bat against Cleveland’s leadoff hitter, Steven Kwan, who battled for nine pitches before flying out. That could’ve sent the first inning awry, but Rodon got through it in 22 pitches, only allowing a David Fry single. He gave up another hit in the second, but then retired 11 straight before Brayan Rocchio led off the sixth with a solo homer.
During Rodon’s streak of consecutive outs, the Yankees scored four times.
Rodon mostly used his fastball, which averaged nearly 96 mph, and his slider, though he sprinkled in his changeup, curveball and cutter, too. The slider was a significant weapon – Cleveland hitters swung at the slider 13 times and missed on nine of those occasions. Of his nine strikeouts, seven ended on his slider.
José Ramírez hit two balls hard to center, one that Aaron Judge had to run a long way to snare. But Rodon avoided any damage beyond the Rocchio homer. Unless you count whatever damage his dominance may have done to the Guardians’ collective psyche.
His own state of mind? He sounded after his start like someone in a great spot, happy with himself and generous with praise of his teammates, from catcher Austin Wells to the hitters who supplied the thump to the bullpen.
Asked where his performance might rank in his own career, Rodon replied, “Yeah, it’s up there.
“I’ve never pitched the ALCS before. So this is my first time. There’s no bigger stage in baseball, so I would say it’s definitely up there.”
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