Yankees bounce back behind strong start from Rodon

The Yankees took down the Padres 5-1 to even the series. Carlos Rodon got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Robbie Ray.

Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Amed Rosario went three up, three down in the top half of the first inning. 

In the bottom half of the first inning, Rodon walked a batter and allowed a single, putting runners at the corners with one out. However, Rodon picked up a pair of strikeouts to work into and out of trouble. 

Ben Rice led off the top half of the second inning with a single after a three-hit performance last night. Then the San Diego native Spencer Jones came through with an RBI single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead and start a two-out rally. José Caballero and Austin Wells followed with a walk to load the bases. The Goldy drew a walk to bring across another run. The next batter, Belli, delivered a two-run base knock to extend the Yankees' lead to 4-0. 

“I think it's a combination of things,” Jones said on getting more comfortable at the plate. “The guys in the clubhouse do a really good job, making me feel welcome; the coaches and everybody love what I do already. And then it's just about repetitions and getting more at-bats and facing these guys.”

Rodon worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 shutdown bottom half of the second inning and recorded a couple of strikeouts to put his total up to four for the ballgame. 

Rice led off the third inning with a free pass; Heliot Ramos followed with a base hit, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. The next batter, George Lombard Jr., extended the Yankees' lead to 5-0 with a sacrifice fly. 

The Padres got a run back in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to former AL East foe Manny Machado blasting a solo shot to cut the Yankees' lead to four runs. 

Then in the bottom half of the inning, Rodon forced the Padres to go three up, three down and notched two more punchouts. 

Michael Fulmer replaced Rodon in the bottom of the sixth inning and picked up the first two outs as well as walked a couple of batters. Brent Headrick took over and recorded a strikeout to strand both runners. 

Final line for Rodon: Five innings pitched, two hits allowed, one earned run, walked three, and struck out seven on 89 pitches. He threw his fastball 60% of the time, the slider 26%, the changeup 11%, the curveball 2%, and the sinker 1%. Rodon topped out at 95.3 mph, sitting at 93.9 mph, and had 12 swings and misses. 

“Some quick outs and then some longer at-bats; had some decent at-bats,” Rodon said. “A couple walks. Obviously, there are some things I'd like to refine and be more crisp in the zone and just get ahead, especially with that kind of lead, but you know, we went, and that's what matters.”

Headrick came back out for the bottom of the seventh and retired the Padres in order and recorded a strikeout. 

. 

John Schreiber came in relief for Headrick in the bottom of the eighth and worked a scoreless inning. 

Schreiber came back out for the bottom of the ninth inning and picked up the first out before former Padre Tim Hill replaced him and picked up the final two outs, setting up a rubber game tomorrow. 

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Gerrit Cole on the mound facing off against former Yankees Michael King. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Really solid start from Rodon, borderline great, but he wasn't able to give the Yankees enough length and walked too many batters for me to consider it great. Flumer’s command wasn't there tonight with a pair of walks, but thankfully Headrick picked him up and got the final out of the inning, then worked a scoreless seventh inning. Schreiber picked up four big outs; we haven't seen much of Schreiber thus far, but I have liked what I have seen from him in his limited sample size. Hill has been much better lately and is expected to pick up the final two outs of the game. The Yankees offense did most of their damage in the second inning thanks to three walks, but they still tallied nine hits and five runs. Three of those hits came from Rice, with his second three-hit game in as many days. Belli also had a nice night at the plate with a couple of RBIs. Goldy had a hit and an RBI thanks to a bases-loaded walk. And Jones had a big homecoming with a couple of hits and an RBI. I wasn't able to write a recap for last night, so I figured I would talk about it a little today. I am not sure why Aaron Boone didn't challenge Jones getting thrown out at third in the 10th inning; that play was very close and could very well have been overturned, and there was no reason to save that challenge. I also dont understand why he used David Bednar in a non-save situation on the road. I try my best to not blame Boone for losses, because at the end of the day it's up to the players to perform, but Friday's loss was mainly on Boone. It also didn't help that Boone had Trent Grisham out in center field, who clearly hasn't looked like himself lately, and let a fly ball that I could have caught in center field drop in for an RBI single, which proved to be the difference. And of course, Grisgham would go on to leave the game with a hamstring injury and was placed on the IL today. But thankfully, as frustrating as last night's loss was, especially since the Rays and Red Sox ended up winning, hopefully the Yankees will be able to make up for it tomorrow with a series win. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will look to win the series against King, who they are ivisly very familiar with after he spent his first five seasons with the Yankees. Also sorry for the late post on this; I have been busy on the weekends lately. 

“Solid overall,” Rice said. “Have some that really just found some holes for me through the infield, some other solid swings. So just got to keep going.”