Yankees salvage finale with 2-1 win over Guardians
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
The Yankees took down the Guardians 2-1 to avoid being swept. Carlos Rodon took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against Slade Cecconi.
“Hats off to them,” Ryan McMahon said. “They pitched really well this whole series, and I'm glad we got out of here with this one.”
Rodon worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 top half of the first inning with a pair of strikeouts.
In the bottom half of the inning, Trent Grisham lined a lead-off single to right field. But that would be all for the Yankees as Ben Rice struck out, Paul Goldschmidt bounced out to second, and Cody Bellinger flew out to left field.
Rodon navigated around a two-out walk in the top of the second thanks to a beautiful diving catch from Max Schueman to end the frame.
The Guardians struck first in the top of the fourth inning via a two-out RBI single from Stuart Fairchild to give them a 1-0 lead.
Goldy and Belli kicked off the bottom half of the inning with back-to-back singles, then pulled off a double steal to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Jazz Chisholm Jr. tied the game with a sacrifice fly, but Belli was thrown out oversliding third base for the second out.
Rodon retired the Guardians in order to put together a shutdown top of the fifth inning and recorded his seventh strikeout of the ballgame.
Brent Headrick replaced Rodon on the mound in the top of the seventh inning and navigated around a two-out walk, putting together a scoreless outing.
Final line for Rodon: Six shutout innings, two hits allowed, one earned run, walked three, and struck out seven on 96 pitches. He threw his fastball 43% of the time, the slider 28%, the chagenup 14%, the sinker 13%, and the curveball 3%. Rodon topped out at 97.3 mph, sitting at 94.9 mph on his heater, and had 18 swings and misses.
“The fastball command was good,” Rodon said. “It was crisp, so decent changeup. J.C. was on with his calls, and it was just easy to work with him. It's obviously easy to work with both of our guys back there, but J.C. was on it, and we had a good idea of what we wanted to do, and it worked out.”
Jazz worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the seventh, then stole second and moved up to third on a wild pitch. Ryan McMahon drove in Jazz with a two-out RBI single through the right side of the infield to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
“I was just trying to get a knock,” McMahon said. “Trying to get him home, give us a lead so we can try to get away with this one.”
Fernando Cruz came in for the top of the eighth inning and worked a 1-2-3 inning on just 10 pitches.
Yankees closer David Bednar got the call for the top of the ninth and retired the Guardians in order to pick up the save and help the Yankees salvage the final game of the series.
The Yankees will now welcome the Red Sox to town for a three-game set. Ryan Weathers will get the starting nod for the Yankees tomorrow and face off against former Yankee Sonny Gray. The first pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: The Yankees get their first win of June to slow down the swoon for now. Rodon was great today, as he has now put together three straight great starts to lower his ERA to 2.88. The bullpen did their jobs, as Headrick, Cruz and Bednar combined for three shutout innings. Not much offense today for the Yankees with just five hits, but thankfully, they did just enough to avoid being swept. Grisham had a couple of hits, Belli and Goldy each had a hit and McMahon had the go-ahead hit in the seventh inning. Still no new update on Judge as they are still awaiting word from the specialist. On to tomorrow for the Red Sox.
“Nothing on Judge,” Aaron Boone said. “I checked in the middle of the game. I ran in and asked, and we're waiting on the specialist to weigh in. So that's where we're at.”
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