In his return from his latest stint on the injured list, Carlos Rodon pitched six full innings for the first time as a Yankee.
Rodon put forth one of his best statistical performances of the season on Tuesday night in The Bronx, though the Yankees dropped a ninth game in a row, this one 2-1 to the Nationals, to tie their longest losing streak since 1982.
The left-handed hurler had a strong defensive performance behind him to limit the damage.
Throwing 68 pitches, 41 strikes, Rodon gave up six hits, one earned run (a solo homer from Carter Kieboom in the third inning) and hit one batter.
He also registered just one strikeout while walking none.
It was a relatively encouraging night for Rodon, who has struggled mightily with both his pitching and injuries this season after he signed a six-year, $162 million deal with the Yankees last winter.
“I thought Ben [Rortvedt] and I had a little groove going there,” he said, referring to the Yankees’ catcher. “[The Nationals are] aggressive. And defensively, my boys picked me up. Some outfield assists there, I think three of them. Some really good plays by the defense today that kept me in the game and kept that game at one run. So thanks to them.”
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Keibert Ruiz dropped one into right-center in the fourth inning, when the score was tied 1-1, but Aaron Judge fielded the hit and threw out the Nationals catcher as he was making his way to second base.
In the top of the fifth, Harrison Bader made an incredible diving play on Alex Call’s liner that seemed to be an out, but was not actually caught. Still, Bader got the out with a throw to second to kick off a 1-2-3 inning for the Yankees.
Gleyber Torres also fielded a hard-hit ball up the middle by Ruiz in the sixth, sliding on his left knee to get in front of it before getting the out at first.
“It was an interesting outing,” Boone said of Rodon. “They handle left-handed fastballs pretty well, and they’re aggressive.They were super aggressive tonight. I thought he had enough of a presence with his secondary stuff and moving the ball around to get them off from really selling out to that characteristic and really getting into a ball, which was good. They were swinging early, putting the ball in play.“Obviously, a few really big defensive plays behind him to keep it down. … He did his job and put us in a position to win a ball game.”
After spending the first three-plus months of the season on the injured list with a left forearm strain and back stiffness, Rodon returned to the mound in July. His ERA ballooned to 7.33 in his first six starts before he landed back on the IL with a left hamstring strain earlier this month.
The Yankees haven’t had a chance to see Rodon pitch as he did when he posted back-to-back All-Star seasons before he inked that lucrative contract with the club.
No one knows that better than Rodon, who recently called his performance this season “a pile of s–t.”
