Carlos Rodon finally pitched like the Yankees needed him to.
Rodon found his rhythm, avoided his usual first-inning worries, and stretched to seven innings in what was the left-hander’s most impressive start in more than a month in the Yankees’ 9-1 victory over the Rays on Monday afternoon to gain a split of the four-game series.
Rodon changed his approach against Baltimore on July 15 after batters ate up his fastball.
He instead threw a variety of pitches, but lasted just four innings due to a high pitch count.
Against the Rays, he didn’t change a good thing after starting out with two fastballs on Amed Rosario to eventually catch the former Met swinging on his third pitch — an 86 mph slider — for his first of 10 strikeouts on the day.
Rodon, who didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning, went on to throw 11 heaters in the first inning, along with two changeups, one curveball and one slider.
“Yeah, I think we featured a little more fastball. We moved around a little bit more and the more I do it, the more comfortable I get,” Rodon said of his effective adjustment after the win. “It’s just going out there and doing it. Just moving the fastball around and then throwing some different secondaries, getting ahead in a different way and just finishing with the slider or something different. It worked out.”
He kept with his fastball after seeing its effectiveness and it accounted for 54 percent of his pitches, averaging at about 95 mph. He purposely used his slider less (20 pitches).
“It [the slider] was good. Used it late in the count, didn’t show it early that much, and I think it was a little bit more effective that way,” Rodon said.
Before Monday, Rodon had a 9.67 ERA in his previous six starts and he had not recorded a seven-inning outing since June 10 against the Royals.
Manager Aaron Boone has continually expressed confidence in Rodon, but did acknowledge how much the left-hander needed Monday’s successful outing.
“When you’re going through it, to go do your job really effectively and in this case pitch as well as he did, yeah, that’s a big deal,” Boone said. “And hopefully that’s something that kind of gets him rolling again. Again, like as he’s gone through it here these last several weeks, there has been a lot of what we saw today just in and around some struggles within those outings so I just thought the strike throwing in the command today was excellent.”