Rodon leads Yankees past Rangers in tightly fought shutout

New York—The Yankees took down the Rangers 1-0 in a pitchers' duel to complete the sweep. Carlos Rodon got the start for the Yankees, and Nathan Eovaldi took the mound for the Rangers.

It was a very cool moment for the Schmidt family before the game. Clarke Schmidt's dad, Marine Corps Colonel Dwight Schmidt, threw out the first pitch to his son, Clarke, which was a complete surprise to Clarke.

Rodon worked around a two-out bloop single to right field and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame in the top of the first. 

Aaron Judge worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the first inning, and a couple of batters later, Paul Goldschmidt lined a single to left center. But, Jasson Dominguez grounded out sharply to first base to strand Judge and Goldy. 

In the bottom of the second inning, Jorbit Vivas reached with two outs via a catcher's interference. The next batter, Oswald Peraza, legged out a hustle double. Then Trent Grisham grounded out to strand two runners on base. 

In the top of the third inning, Rodon worked into and out of trouble and picked up two more strikeouts to put his total up to three on the day. 

Rodon retired the Rangers in order in the top of the fourth inning on just eight pitches. 

In the top of the fifth, Rodon struck out the Rangers in order to put his strikeout total up to six on the day. 

Jorbit Vivas led off the bottom of the fifth inning with his first career home run to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

“I was just looking for something in the zone,” Vivas said. “Just something I could hit well, something high in the zone. Thank god I was able to get that pitch there, and I was able to connect there.” 

Rodon picked up two more strikeouts in the top of the sixth to strand a leadoff walk and put his punch out total up to eight on the day. 

Mark Leiter Jr. replaced Rodon on the mound in the top of the seventh and worked into and out of trouble, picking up two strikeouts to strand runners at the corners. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: six innings pitched, two hits allowed, zero earned runs, two walks, and eight strikeouts on 105 pitches. Rodon threw his slider 36% of the time, fastball 35%, changeup 20%, and the curveball 9% of the time. Rodon was great today, yet again keeping Rangers hitters off balance all game long. 

“JC was great behind the plate, we just got on a roll there after the second or third,” Rodon said. “Defensively, we had some great plays, Peraza at third with the long skip throw on a ball to his backhand, and he made some other plays. The outfield, Cody covering some ground, Jorbit with the big home run, first one for him, that's a big deal. Then we win 1-0 because the bullpen shuts it down, so great win.”

Devin Williams came in to pitch, replacing Leiter Jr. in the top of the eighth inning, and retired the Rangers in order, picking up a strikeout in the process. 

Luke Weaver pitched for the third day in a row and replaced Williams in the top of the ninth. Weaver retired the Rangers in order to pick up the save, give the Yankees a 1-0 win, and complete the sweep. 

“He had a couple of days off before, and two nights ago he only threw two pitches,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on using Weaver three days in a row. “Just with the low volume there, it was going to be a save-only situation today, but I felt like he was good to roll today.”

The Yankees will start a new series tomorrow in Colorado against the Rockies. Clarke Schmidt will get the start for the Yankees, and it is TBD for the Rockies. The first pitch will be at 8:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Another great start for Rodon, firing six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. There is not much to say about that game; only nine hits combined between the two teams. Vivas's huge go-ahead home run in the fifth inning, the first of his career, ended up being the winning run. Leiter Jr., Williams, and Weaver were all great, working scoreless innings to help close this game out. Bellinger snapped his career-high 15-game hit streak today as all good things must come to an end. The Yankees will now look to sweep the Rockies. I don't expect sweeps often, but against the Rockies, who are on pace for 26 wins this season, anything short of a sweep is a failure.