Carlos Rodon rocked, booed off the mound as Yankees' 5-game win streak ends in loss to Tigers
Carlos Rodon of the Yankees reacts on the mound during the third inning against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The kids aren’t going to run the table after all.
Though the Yankees’ five-game winning streak coming to an end Thursday night had little to do with the rookies.
Carlos Rodon, the club’s biggest free agent signing last winter not named Aaron Judge, saw a miserable first season in pinstripes continue Thursday night as he was shelled over 3 2/3 innings of a 10-3 loss to the Tigers in front of a Stadium crowd of 32,722 that booed the lefthander off the mound.
Rodon (2-5, 6.60), signed to a six-year, $162-million deal in the offseason, allowed a season-high seven runs and eight hits. That helped put the Yankees (70-70), who fell seven games out of the American League’s third wild-card spot, in an insurmountable hole.
Afterward, Rodon didn’t mince words about his performance.
“I got my [butt] whupped,” Rodon said. “That’s pretty much it . . . we were on a little roll there with five straight wins and just trying to put the next one up and [I] showed up and . . . it was not good.”
Rodon, who made one spring training start before getting hurt and starting the season on the injured list with a forearm strain, did not make his season debut until July 7.
“I’m not going to make any excuses for my performance tonight,” Rodon said of the stop-start nature of his season. “I just wasn’t good and it’s time to be better. I haven’t performed very well and I haven’t performed very much, so it’s been very frustrating.”
Jasson Dominguez, who had at least one hit in each of his first five games — including three homers — went 0-for-3 with a walk.
Spencer Torkelson, who hit a pair of two-run homers, got the Tigers (64-76) started in the opening inning with the first of those. The second came in the fourth inning against Randy Vasquez, who replaced Rodon, which made it 8-1.
The Yankees were outhit 14-6.
“It’s obviously not ideal,” Anthony Volpe (1-for-3 with a walk) said of the early deficit. “But I thought we put together good at-bats the rest of the night. I don’t think it takes anything away from how we’re playing and how we’re capable of playing going forward.”
Gleyber Torres’ torrid stretch of late continued as the second baseman went 2-for-3, including his 25th homer, second-most on the club to Aaron Judge’s 31.
Torres, slashing .339/.420/.636 with nine homers, 18 RBIs and 15 walks in his last 32 games, hit a solo homer leading off the second to cut the Yankees’ deficit to 2-1. But the Tigers put up two more in the third and four in the fourth, driving Rodon from the game.
Tigers lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez (11-7, 3.18), who entered 8-6 with a 3.76 ERA in his career against the Yankees, allowed three runs and four hits over six innings in which he walked four and struck out four.
Andy Ibanez hit Detroit’s third homer of the night, a two-run blast in the eighth off Albert Abreu that made it 10-3.
In the first, Rodon allowed a leadoff double to Matt Vierling, then watched Torkelson take him deep on a full-count 95-mph fastball, the first baseman’s 26th homer of the season. Vierling’s RBI double in the third made it 3-1 and Ibanez’s sacrifice fly later in the inning made it 4-1.
Before the top of the fourth, Anthony Rizzo, whose season is over because of post-concussion syndrome, was ejected by plate umpire Alan Porter, the first baseman apparently objecting to two borderline pitches called against Dominguez, who struck out looking to end the third.
It was Rizzo’s fourth career ejection in 13 big-league seasons. Torkelson’s shot off Vazquez highlighted the Tigers’ four-run fourth that more or less put the game away, though Everson Pereira’s two-run double in the bottom half made it 8-3.
“Just not getting the ball to enough spots that he wanted to,” Aaron Boone said of Rodon. “Just think he was missing locations. Fastball profile was OK . . . and then a little bit inconsistent with his secondary [stuff], and then they put some good swings on and got to some decent pitches too.”
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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