Rodon dominates, but Yankees’ late collapse hands Reds series win

Cincinnati—The June gloom continues for the Yankees as they dropped a heartbreaker, 5-4, to the Reds. Carlos Rodon got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Chase Burns, the Reds' top pitching prospect, making his Major League debut. 

Burns struck out Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, and Aaron Judge in order in the first inning of his big league career, one of the most impressive first innings you will ever see by a rookie. 

Rodon picked up his first two strikeouts of the ballgame to help work around a two-out single from Elley De La Cruz. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined a two-out single to right field in the top of the second inning for the Yankees' first hit of the ballgame. 

Rodon worked around a two-out single to put together a scoreless inning thanks to a nice leaping catch in foul territory for Judge. 

Rice led off the top of the fourth inning with a solo shot to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead, his 14th home run of the year. The next batter, Judge, dunked a bloop single into center field.

A couple batters later, Jazz lined a single to right field, his second hit of the night. The next batter, Anthony Volpe, came through with a huge two-out two-run triple to make it a 3-0 game. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Rodon worked a 1-2-3 inning and picked up his fourth strikeout of the ballgame in the process. 

Paul Goldschmidt made a beautiful diving play in the bottom of the sixth inning to help Rodon retire the Reds in order. Rodon also picked up his fifth strikeout of the game. 

Jonathan Loáisiga replaced Rodon on the mound and walked a batter, then gave up a back-to-back one-out single to load the bases. The next batter, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, cleared the bases with a double to tie this game up at 3-3. Loáisiga then left the game with an injury. Fernando Cruz took over for the injured Loáisiga and picked up the final two outs of the inning to keep the game tied. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: six innings pitched, four hits allowed, zero earned runs, one walk, 13 swings and misses, and five strikeouts on 88 pitches. Rodon threw his fastball 38% of the time, the slider 35%, the changeup 22%, and the sinker 6% of the time, as he completely eliminated the curveball from his arsenal tonight. Rodon was great tonight; I would have liked to see him go back out there for the seventh inning since his pitch count was still in a good spot. 

"You know, I thought Wells had a good game plan up there and just went up there to execute," Rodon said. "And defensively, you know, had my back again and got through six, and just you know. I thought it was a clean game." 

Luke Weaver came into the game, taking over for Cruz in the bottom of the eighth inning, and worked a scoreless frame. 

Cody Bellinger led off the top of the ninth inning with a single to right field. However, Goldy flew out, followed by strikeouts from Jazz and Volpe to strand Belli. Jazz was not happy after a questionable strike call in a 2-0 count that led to a strikeout. Jazz was eventually ejected from the game and lost it having to be held back by his teammate Jasson Dominguez. 

"I got tossed for saying, 'Why are you looking at me?' I don't think that's a good reason to toss anybody,” Jazz said.

"Yeah, I mean, obviously, Jazz didn't like the 2-0 call," Boone said. "You know, some words at home plate within the at bat, you know, and then Jazz went out and you know says he wasn't saying anything to Mark Wagner and Mark was looking down at him and ends up running them. So, not a great situation."

Devin Williams replaced Weaver in the bottom of the ninth and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning on just nine pitches to send the game to extra innings. 

Grisham worked a two-out walk in the top of the 10th inning, Rice then worked a walk of his own to bring up Judge with the bases loaded. Judge popped out to strand the bases loaded as the Yankees continue to struggle to hit with runners in scoring position.

Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Williams in the bottom of the 10th and worked a 1-2-3 inning to send this game to the 11th inning. 

Belli led off the top of the 11th with a productive groundout to move Judge up to third. Judge then came across to score and give the Yankees a 4-3 lead on a wild pitch. 

Leiter remained in the game and gave up back-to-back singles to tie the game up at 4-4. A wild pitch then allowed the winning run to move up to third with nobody out. A couple batters later, Gavin Lux dunked a walkoff RBI single to end this one 5-4 and give the Reds the series win. 

The Yankees will look to salvage the series finale tomorrow and avoid being swept. Max Fried will get the start for the Yankees, facing off against Brady Singer for the Reds. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees continue to struggle in extra innings.  Rodon was dominant on the mound yet again, but unfortunately, Boone took him out an inning too early, and the Yankees ended up coming up in an inning short. A couple of hits from Jazz tonight, but unfortunately, he ended up getting ejected when the Yankees needed him most, just before extra innings. Volpe, who has been struggling as of late, had a big two-run triple. Rice has also been heating back up at the plate. His home run tonight was the furthest of his career. Loáisiga didn't have it tonight, then he left the game with an injury, so hopefully he's ok. The rest of the bullpen was solid as Weaver, Williams, and Leiter all worked scoreless innings. However, Leiter and the Yankees bullpen ran out of gas in the 11th inning to blow a 4-3 lead. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will look to avoid being swept by the Reds.