Yankees' Carlos Rodon throws 7 shutout innings in win over Angels
Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón throws against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a game Tuesday in Anaheim, Calif. Credit: AP/Kevork Djansezian
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The play that most electrified and simultaneously amused the Yankees' dugout Tuesday night was on a ball that traveled some 30-40 feet.
After Ben Rice’s 11th homer of the season in the top of the fourth inning snapped a scoreless tie, Carlos Rodon quickly retired the first two batters in the bottom half.
The third hitter, the speedy Joe Adell, then chopped an 0-and-1 changeup off the plate, the ball went to the right of the mound in no-man’s land, a hit assured.
But the 6-2, 255-pound Rodon, sprinting from the mound, caught the ball and, ala a lefthanded Derek Jeter, made a jump-throw to first. Paul Goldschmidt scooped the one-hopper to nip Adell by a half-step, the play causing its share of arms raised and smiles from Rodon’s teammates, the highlight play from the lefthander’s seven scoreless innings in the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over the Angels in front of 34,491 at Angel Stadium.
“I didn’t see that one coming, to be honest with you,” second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who himself made a terrific play in the ninth, said with a smile. “He’s an athletic guy, though. Guys were pretty fired up.”
The feel-good play, and victory, which assured the Yankees (34-20) of their seventh straight series win as they’ve now won 15 of their last 19 games, nearly got overshadowed by a Devin Williams ninth-inning implosion.
Williams had not allowed a run in 11 of 12 outings since losing the closer’s job to Luke Weaver late last month, but was closing on this night as the latter had been used on back-to-back days,
He allowed a leadoff homer in the inning to Yoan Moncada that got the Angels (25-29) on the board, and Taylor Ward followed with a single. Williams got former Met Travis d’Arnaud to hit a loud out to center and Luis Rengifo lined a single to center, putting the tying runner at first and Ward on third. Adell hit a grounder toward the hole at short, where Anthony Volpe made a sliding stop. He threw to second, getting the ball to LeMahieu, who had to stretch the entirety of his 6-3 frame for the out (Ward scored on the play to make it 3-2).
“Not an easy play,” Aaron Boone said of LeMahieu’s stretch. “The throw’s pulling him probably a little bit to the outfield grass, and to first be able to secure the ball and then kind of have a feel for the bag, it was a big-time play.”
Logan O’Hoppe, who grew up in Sayville and went to St. John the Baptist and who came in with 14 homers, pinch hit for Chris Taylor and fouled out, swinging at a 3-and-0 fastball, to end it.
“I didn’t think he’d be swinging there to be honest,” Williams said. “Kind of did me a favor.”
Of allowing two runs, Williams said: “At the end of the day, we won. That’s all that matters.”
Still, Rodon’s night was the headliner and his athletic play in the fourth could have been shoved to the status of irrelevance if the 32-year-old didn’t keep throwing like the best pitcher in the American League not named Max Fried.
Rodon allowed five hits over seven innings in which he did not walk a batter and matched his season high in strikeouts with 10. Rodon, who came in 5-0 with a 1.48 ERA over his previous seven starts, improved to 7-3 with 2.60 ERA.
“I just have a good understanding of what I want to do out there and so do the catchers,” Rodon said. “Mostly, it’s just the confidence in what I’m doing out there.”
Rodon, as he’s done after most of his starts, praised the defense behind him. Centerfielder Trent Grisham made a diving catch on a smoked sinking liner for the second out of the seventh, earning a point of appreciation in his direction from Rodon.
But the play getting the most attention was the pitcher’s jump-throw in the fourth to clip Adell.
“Volpe called him ‘lefty Jeter,’” LeMahieu said with a smile.
Said Rodon: “I saw it good off the bat and just went over there and tried to make the best play I can. I’ll probably feel that tomorrow after the jump.”
Volpe’s RBI single in the sixth made it 2-0 and Oswald Peraza blasted a homer, his third, in the eighth to make it 3-0.
“I think we’re in a good head space, I think we’re confident, we know what we want to do out there on the ballfield,” Rodon said. “We’re showing up. We’re just playing good baseball.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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