Yankees' Carlos Rodon takes first step toward turnaround
Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodon winds up during the first inning of the team's game against the Astros on Friday in Houston. Credit: AP/Kevin M. Cox
HOUSTON
If it’s any consolation, from a Yankees perspective, neither Blake Snell nor Jordan Montgomery was going to be ready to pitch against the Astros this weekend anyway. Not after those late March signings, at deeply discounted rates, significantly delayed their spring training preparation.
Instead, the Yankees wound up with Nestor Cortes as their Opening Day starter at Minute Maid Park on Thursday — an emergency sub for the injured Gerrit Cole — and stuck with the anxiety-inducing Carlos Rodon at the No. 2 slot for Friday.
This rotation figured to be a high-wire act even before Cole’s shocking elbow scare, with general manager Brian Cashman coolly ignoring the obvious free-agent upgrades who hung around much longer than anyone anticipated. Now that Cole likely is out through the first two months, at a minimum, that wire is feeling considerably more wobbly.
Yet for the second consecutive game, the Yankees squeezed what they needed from a starter, this time riding Rodon into the fifth inning before pulling away in Friday’s 7-1 victory over the fumbling Astros. Like Cortes the previous day, Rodon switched into survival mode and somehow held the Astros to a single first-inning run before manager Aaron Boone fetched him after getting Kyle Tucker’s flyout to open the fifth.
“Just going out there and competing,” said Rodon, whose fastball velocity averaged 95.7 mph and maxed out at 98.3, well beyond his Grapefruit League gun readings. “I had good stuff today, but kind of all over the place . . . I’ll take what I can get.”
His final line? Five hits, that one run, three walks, four strikeouts and at least two road-gray uniform jerseys. Rodon gutted his way through this start with the worst case of flop sweat since Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News,” going to the second of his spare No. 55 shirts after three innings.
Rodon bobbed and weaved out of trouble, stranding seven Astros. He whiffed Jose Abreu and Chas McCormick back-to- back to end the third inning, leaving two in scoring position. Houston threatened again in the fourth, starting with a pair of singles, including one by Yainer Diaz that nearly tripped up Rodon. But he retired the next three in order, and when Rodon whiffed Yordan Alvarez on an elevated full-count cutter, he stormed off the mound, pumping both fists.
“I thought his stuff was outstanding,” Boone said. “Because his stuff was so good, he was able to make some big pitches to get some big outs when he did have that inevitable traffic that was out there.”
Rodon’s 87-pitch performance was no Picasso. It was tough to watch at times. But he didn’t sabotage the Yankees’ chances and got them into the fifth at hostile Minute Maid Park, and there’s value in that.
“I want to go out there and make them swing and miss every pitch,” Rodon said. “That was the goal. We got a little wonky, guys got on base, they drove in a run that first inning. But we held them.”
And that’s been a workable game plan for this rotation thus far. Without Cole, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, tenacity has to be this group’s calling card. Roll with the inevitable punches, yet be resilient enough to stop the trouble from snowballing. As the Yankees showed Thursday for Cortes, their new Juan Soto-powered offense is capable of wearing out the opposing team’s pitching stable.
Think of that as a psychological weapon for their own staff. Or as pitching coach Matt Blake told Cortes the previous night, “Just hold the rope.”
The Yankees relied on more of that rope-holding from Rodon, and they’ll hope for the same from Marcus Stroman on Saturday and Clarke Schmidt in Sunday’s series finale.
Despite getting an ace-caliber paycheck (six years, $162 million), Rodon had pitched like back-end rotation filler, finishing an injury-plagued 2023 with a 6.85 ERA in only 14 starts. The fact that the Yankees left him in the No. 2 slot for this opening series probably has more to do with his salary than actual merit.
For the silver linings crowd, Rodon made it through his five Grapefruit League starts physically intact, a major step up from a year ago, when he was felled by a forearm strain after his first spring training outing.
The Yankees’ chorus on Rodon hasn’t changed in six weeks: find something to build on. It’s a low bar, but Rodon satisfied it with Friday night’s effort.
“Listen, man, I’m never going to be mad when our team wins,” Rodon said. “I know there’s room for improvement throughout the week leading into the next start, but I’ll walk away happy that the Yankees won, for sure.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
