David Lennon: Carlos Rodon turns in solid start as Yankees beat A's
Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon throws in the first inning against the Brewers on May 10, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Credit: Getty Images/John Fisher
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two starts into Gerrit Cole’s celebrated return, the Yankees’ rotation has performed at the level the front office dreamed this group might reach. Pick any category and their starting pitchers either are leading or near the top, as consistently dominant as any front five in the majors across the board.
The only hiccup? Carlos Rodon, who had pitched like a $162 million work-in-progress since returning from elbow surgery (the injured Max Fried gets an asterisk for now).
Maybe it took a few turns, but Rodon officially joined the party Friday night, holding the dangerous A’s down for six innings in the Yankees’ 8-2 victory at hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park.
He got plenty of help, too. Paul Goldschmidt’s three-run homer with two outs in the first inning put the Yankees ahead 4-0 and they spent the rest of the night making Rodon’s life easier.
Ben Rice had three hits, two RBIs and home run No. 17, tying Aaron Judge for the team lead. Rice also got to 50 career homers the fifth fastest in franchise history, needing 240 games (Gary Sanchez is atop that list at 161).
Former Yankee Luis Severino lasted only one inning before leaving the mound during warm-ups for the top of the second because of right arm soreness.
It was Rodon’s longest outing this season, and he became more efficient as the game wore on, whittling down his pitch count toward the end. Of the 93 pitches — two short of his highest total — Rodon needed only nine each to get through the fifth and sixth innings.
The Yankees’ rotation has surrendered two or fewer runs in the last eight games. In six of the previous seven, it’s been one run or fewer.
Rodon allowed four hits, but the only one that stung was the homer by Nick Kurtz, the A’s second batter of the game. Kurtz challenged the call on a 1-and-1 slider, flipping the called strike to a ball, then walloped a 408-foot homer over the centerfield wall. It was the first home run that Rodon has allowed in five starts (19 innings), but he trimmed his ERA to 3.32 in earning his first victory (1-2).
The A’s entered Friday with a 23.6% strikeout rate, the eighth highest in the majors, but Rodon fanned only three. He didn’t get his first swing-and-miss until pitch No. 47 to Kurtz, a slider that struck him out. In his start against the contact-obsessed Blue Jays, Rodon had seven strikeouts, including 18 swings-and-misses in five innings.
Cole and Rodon were supposed to be the two-ace cavalry, riding to the rescue for late April into May, but one was noticeably behind the other’s rapid gallop.
Cole, the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner, somehow has exceeded expectations, firing 12 2⁄3 scoreless innings in his pair of starts (six hits, three walks, 12 strikeouts). He’s also throwing harder than he was before his Tommy John surgery, with a four-seam fastball that has averaged 96.3 mph (as opposed to 95.9 in 2024).
Rodon had been slower to get up to speed after his own October elbow surgery to remove loose bodies from the joint and shave a bone spur. In three starts before Friday, he walked 11 in 13 innings and had a 4.15 ERA.
Rodon’s early struggles with recalibration are not all that unusual. Not everyone can be Cole. But the Yankees are paying Rodon like an ace, and even if he has slid considerably down the rotation ladder, it’s wasn’t unreasonable to want a higher standard of performance.
Keeping the powerful A’s in check, in their combustible bandbox, was no small feat. The Pacific Coast League launching pad grades out as the most hitter-friendly stadium in the majors by a large margin, with a park factor of 116 that’s well above the runner-up, which is a tie between the Reds’ Great American Ball Park (108) and Nationals Park. Yankee Stadium is next at 107.
Since 2024, when Rodon teed up 31 homers, he ranks seventh in the majors with a 1.24 HR/9 rate, so Sutter Health Park didn’t figure to be the best place for him to, um, get healthy on the mound this weekend. He showed otherwise.
Before Rodon returned — or even Cole, for that matter — the rotation mostly had been a best-case scenario, aside from the worrisome wrinkle involving Fried’s achy left elbow. Cam Schlittler has established himself as the AL’s Cy Young Award frontrunner, Will Warren is pitching like Mr. Reliable again and Ryan Weathers has evolved into a formidable strike-thrower.
Heading into Friday’s series opener against the A’s, the rotation’s 2.98 ERA was second only to the Rays (2.97). The Yankees’ 1.09 WHIP was barely behind the No. 1 Dodgers (1.07) and their .207 opponents’ batting average trailed only the Brewers (.205). The starting staff also led MLB in opponents’ slugging percentage (.317), OPS (.596) and HR/9 IP (0.73).
Remember, Cole and Fried still have yet to pitch in the same rotation together. Now factor in Schlittler’s rise to prominence, and the Yankees are nowhere near reaching their potential on the pitching front.
“I’m not surprised necessarily by it because I look at the individuals and know what they’re capable of,” manager Aaron Boone said before Friday’s game. “But I couldn’t have expected any better than this. Everyone’s throwing the ball really well.”
When it comes to the Yankees’ rotation, the bar has been raised again. And now Rodon is showing he’s capable of reaching those heights.
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.
