Carlos Rodon finally looked like he was pitching the way the Yankees hoped.
Rodon found his rhythm and avoided the usual first-inning jitters, pitching the seventh inning of the Yankees’ game against the Rays on Monday afternoon, the left-hander’s first good outing in more than a month and splitting his fourth straight game. The Yankees won, 9-1, over the Rays.
Rodon changed his pitching style after batters started biting into his fastball during a July 15 game against Baltimore.
Instead, he threw a variety of pitches, but a high pitch count limited him to just four innings.
Against the Rays, he started off well against Amed Rosario with two fastballs, then continued his good form, eventually getting the former Mets pitcher to swing and miss on an 86 mph slider on his third pitch, the first of his 10 strikeouts of the day.
Rodon, who didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning, threw 11 fastballs in the first inning, along with two changeups, a curveball and a slider.
“Yeah, I think I used the fastball a little bit more. I got a little bit of movement in it, and the more I did it the more comfortable I got with it,” Rodon said after the win about the effective adjustments. “You just try to get it going. Move the fastball around a little bit, then throw a different second pitch, lead off in a different way, finish with a slider or something different. It worked.”
He continued to use his fastball after realizing its effectiveness, throwing it 54 percent of the time and averaging about 95 mph. He intentionally reduced his use of his slider (20 pitches).
“that [the slider] “It was good. I used it late in the count and didn’t show it so much early on, but I think it was a little more effective that way,” Rodon said.
Prior to Monday, Rodon had a 9.67 ERA in his past six starts and hadn’t pitched seven innings since June 10 against the Royals.
Manager Aaron Boone has always voiced his confidence in Rodon, but acknowledged how much the left-hander needed success on Monday.
“To be able to be in that situation and be really effective at what I do and pitch the way that he did in this case, that’s a really big thing,” Boone said. “And hopefully that helps get him going again. Again, as he’s been through the last couple weeks, what we saw today was a lot of struggles in and around those outings, so I thought the control was great pitching the strikes today.”
