Yankees' Carlos Rodon able to joke after allowing four HRs in live batting practice
Yankees’ pitcher Carlos Rodon pitches live batting practice during spring training at the team's facility in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 19. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. — Carlos Rodon looked at Friday’s live batting practice session, one in which he allowed four home runs, with at least some humor.
“I’m always competing,” he said. “I don’t want to give up [those] homers, but I’m glad I gave it up to our guys. Make them feel good about themselves.”
Rodon said it with a smile, but the lefthander, who had a horrendous first season for the Yankees, wasn’t thrilled with how the 53-pitch session began. It started with back-to-back homers by minor-leaguers Josh Breaux and Agustin Ramirez. Rodon, who did finish strong, also allowed homers by minor-leaguers Ben Rice and Jose Rojas.
“They got on some fastballs,” said Rodon, who was 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA last season. “Got to mix in a little bit of everything in the arsenal. Felt good with my move down the mound. Just tag it on and get ready for the next one.”
In these kinds of sessions, minor-league hitters, unlike their major-league brethren, generally are at the plate hacking, often without much of a plan. Mariano Rivera, among many other veteran pitchers over the years, disliked facing minor-leaguers for that reason.
“I had some good sequences at the end to the lefties,” Rodon said, referencing his two strikeouts of Spencer Jones, one of the club’s top-rated position prospects. “Got to work in some curveballs and work on the cutter, so that was good.”
Of the cutter, a pitch Rodon is stressing in spring training, he said: “It’s coming along. Keep working with it, keep throwing it.”
Peraza concern?
Infielder Oswald Peraza, scratched from Tuesday’s game in Port Charlotte against the Rays because of what Aaron Boone described as “tightness” in his right shoulder, has not progressed as well as the Yankees would have hoped.
“He had a full day yesterday, today did all his early work, [but] he still has some pinching in there, so they didn’t have him throwing across the diamond yet,'' Boone said. "I don’t think it’s anything too extreme, but he’s probably not where he needs to be just getting it across the diamond, still feeling a little something in there.”
Boone said there are no tests scheduled.
