HOUSTON — Carlos Rodon’s jersey turned a different color Friday night due to how much the Astros were working him, his sweat drenching from light gray to dark throughout the game.
However, the Yankees left-hander remained calm in important situations and put something together in his season debut.
Rodon struggled all night, but limited his damage to just one run in 4¹/₃ innings and remained in the game as the Yankees defeated the Astros 7-1 at Minute Maid Park.
“I’m just going to go out there and fight,” said Rodon, who threw 87 pitches. “I had some good stuff today, but it was bad all over the place. They made me work.”
Four of the five hits Rodon allowed were two strikes.
The other match ended with a count of 0-1. Aaron Boone pointed out that Rodon gave the Astros two strikes and too many good pitches for it to ultimately lead to his demise.
In addition to overcoming his troubles, a positive for Rodon in his season debut was that his fastball showed some vitality.
He averaged 95.7 mph and clocked a respectable 98 seconds.
Rodon also threw in 14 cutters, a new pitch this year, and used one of them to strike out left-handed slugger Yordan Alvarez, and after consecutive singles allowed the frame, he escaped with no runs in the fourth inning. Ta.
“I thought his stuff was outstanding,” Boone said. “They had tough at-bats. But his ability was so good that when there was the inevitable traffic jam, he was able to make some big pitches and get big outs.”
Rodon also changed his jersey after the third inning, dyeing it a fresh Yankees road gray instead of the sweat-soaked dark color.
DJ LeMahieu underwent an additional MRI on Friday for a bruised bone in his foot, but Boone said the results were not yet available before the game.
The veteran third baseman fouled out on March 16 when a ball landed on his foot, but all initial tests, including an MRI, were negative. But when LeMahieu tried to ramp up his baseball activities last week, he was still feeling pain in his foot.
“I haven’t seen any improvement,” Boone said. “A lot of times, when you first do something, the swelling can hide things like that. That’s why [reimaging] — and I think it was in the book to do it anyway and cancel at any time. When he started to get a little better, we didn’t get the day-to-day improvement that we expected, so we’re hoping that we get a better, more defined look this time and move on from there. ”
Boone said LeMahieu’s teeing and throwing Thursday, after just a few days of treatment, suggested the 35-year-old was “feeling a little bit better.”
Jonathan Loaisiga pitched two innings in Thursday’s season opener, but it remains to be seen how long he will need to rest before he can pitch again.
“We’re going to go over it in a pretty rigorous way with him,” Boone said. “Hopefully there will come a time when we can shoot him.” [Thursday] We’re going to use leverage to go from four outs to six outs, maybe seven outs, and we’re going to build in the right amount of rest.”
The Yankees acquired right-handed starting pitcher JT Brubaker and an international signing bonus from the Pirates in exchange for a player to be designated later Friday.
Brubaker underwent Tommy John surgery last April and is currently rehabbing, reportedly aiming to return around the All-Star break.
The 30-year-old, who has two minor league options remaining, is under team control through 2025.
Brubaker appeared in 63 games (61 starts) over three seasons in the major leagues, posting a 4.99 ERA with 324 strikeouts in 315 innings.
The Yankees could use all of their starting pitching depth after trading much of it during the offseason, but said they were happy with their depth coming out of camp.
