Bronx, N.Y. – Under the bright fluorescents of Yankee Stadium, it’s possible the only thing that outshone them was Carlos Rodón in his home debut on Tuesday night in a 3-2 Yankees victory over the Miami Marlins.
While this was his third start this year, it was probably his best, going six-plus innings, allowing two runs on just four hits with six strikeouts, and two walks.
“[He was] really good, I mean on the attack again tonight,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’re good, pitching into the seventh inning, had a little tough luck there behind him, just another strong one for him to put us in position to win a game.”
Alex Verdugo lifted a 370-foot solo home run into the short porch in right field to put the Yankees ahead in the second inning.
The Marlins put up zeros until the fifth inning before Giancarlo Stanton laced a double to the
right-field corner, scoring Juan Soto. The action resumed in the following inning when Soto
singled to center field to bring in Jon Berti.
With the win, the Yankees were the first club in the majors to reach 10 wins (10-2).
“You can’t take them off the board, and they matter now as much as any other time,” Boone
cautioned. “There’s a long way to go, but any time you can play a stretch of games like this, you sure sign up for that and take it. But more than anything, wins, losses, whatever, at this point in the season I’m just pleased with how the group is competing, how they’ve come together, their purpose and we gotta keep that same focus going forward.”
Rodon’s fastball-slider combination worked the way it had for years, but this time it was the select incorporation of the cutter and changeup that helped him perform exceptionally on the mound.
“Mixing up the arsenal, having a presence with the changeup and the cutter, the cutter got him a big double play ball I think in the fifth when he got into a little bit of trouble,” Boone said. “I like the [cutter] for him, it just gets you off the heater for a little bit and puts him in position to get some groundballs too. I thought he did a good job mixing in the changeup too.”
In the seventh, Rodon got into some trouble when he walked the first batter he faced and the next two reached on errors by the infield, loading the bases with no outs. Cue Ian Hamilton’s entrance: he induced two groundouts and a sacrifice flyout, limiting the damage to two runs cashed in.
In the eighth, the infield hustled to keep the base paths clear, most evidently with Anthony
Volpe’s gusto in his attempted 6-4-3 double play when Jake Burger was batting. When Gleyber Torres overdid the throw to Anthony Rizzo, it was effectively forgotten when the next play grounded out to him successfully.
After that, it was a 1-2-3 inning from closer Clay Holmes, but it was truly the duo of Hamilton
and Holmes that sealed the door on this.
“They’ve been huge; Ian is such a weapon and tonight being real pitch efficient, too,” Boone
said. “I think he’s got a lot of confidence right now and then Clay, same way. Good to see him
come out and nail another one.”
Overall, Boone was pleased with Rodón’s start.
“I’ve talked about it ad nauseam, he continues to just stack really good days and he has been
doing that for months now,” Boone said. “He’s in a really good place and he’s really competitive right now.”
