The Yankees obtained completely thrashed by the Blue Jays through the first two video games of the Division Collection, shedding Saturday’s opener 10-1 and then once more on Sunday, 13-7. To be honest, the primary recreation was tight proper as much as the seventh-inning stretch, after which the Blue Jays expanded their 2-1 lead with 4 runs apiece within the seventh and eighth innings, however by the identical token, Sport 2 wasn’t whilst shut as that six-run margin suggests. The Yankees not solely trailed 12-0 by way of 5 innings, but in addition had been no-hit by Trey Yesavage by way of 5 1/3 innings earlier than breaking by way of in opposition to reliever Justin Bruihl within the sixth. Now, for the second time in lower than per week, they’ll flip to Carlos Rodón to face an AL East rival with their season on the road.
The 32-year-old Rodón began Sport 2 of the Wild Card Collection in opposition to the Purple Sox, one night time after Garrett Crochet and Aroldis Chapman stifled the Yankees within the opener. Rodón held the Purple Sox to a few runs in six-plus innings, getting by with greater than a bit assist from his buddies. He retired the primary six batters he confronted earlier than working into bother within the third inning. Jarren Duran, the lone lefty within the lineup, singled, then Ceddanne Rafaela labored a stroll, with Rodón exacerbating the state of affairs with a throwing error on switch-hitter Nick Sogard’s sacrifice bunt. Although he recovered to strike out lefty-masher Rob Refsnyder, each runners scored on a pointy single by Trevor Story. Rodón escaped additional harm when he induced Alex Bregman to floor right into a double play that started with an acrobatic spin transfer by second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.
After a clear prime of the fifth, Rodón was briefly staked to a 3-2 lead because of Aaron Choose’s RBI single, nevertheless it proved short-lived. Rodón fell behind Story 2-0 to guide off the fifth, then threw him a meatball, a 95.2-mph four-seamer that ended up in the course of the strike zone and was hammered 381 toes to left discipline for a game-tying residence run. A four-pitch stroll to Bregman put him on the ropes, however he recovered by retiring Romy Gonzalez on a popout, then getting Carlos Narváez to floor into an around-the-horn double play. Together with his pitch depend at an inexpensive 82, supervisor Aaron Boone despatched Rodón again out to begin the seventh, however he walked Nate Eaton on 4 pitches, threw a wild pitch that despatched him to second, then grazed Duran with a 3-0 pitch. Reliever Fernando Cruz managed to scrub up the mess with out additional harm, aided by a stellar diving cease by Chisholm on a Masataka Yoshida infield single that, had it not been stopped, most likely would have plated each Duran and Eaton. The Yankees scored what proved to be the decisive run within the eighth, when Chisholm labored a stroll in opposition to Garrett Whitlock, then raced residence on an extended single into the best discipline nook by Austin Wells.
For the night time, Rodón threw 91 pitches, yielding 4 hits and strolling three whereas putting out six. He generated 16 referred to as strikes and 10 whiffs, 5 together with his changeup, 4 together with his slider, and one together with his four-seamer; each his 28.5% referred to as strike and whiff fee and 11% swinging-strike fee had been a bit beneath his common season marks (29.5% and 12.4%, respectively), every of which ranked within the eightieth percentile or greater amongst ERA qualifiers. Contact-wise, his common exit velocity of 93.3 mph and 50% hard-hit fee had been additional off his season marks, although Story’s homer was the one ball the Purple Sox barreled.
Rodón is coming off a powerful marketing campaign, one which represents an enormous enchancment on the primary two seasons of his six-year, $162 million deal, even when it wasn’t fairly as dominant as his career-best 18-9 report suggests. He set profession highs with 33 begins and 195 1/3 innings, tying for second within the majors within the former and fourth within the latter. Moreover, he ranked seventh amongst AL qualifiers in strikeout fee (25.7%) and eighth in ERA (3.08). Whereas each his strikeout fee and 9.3% stroll fee represented slight steps within the fallacious course relative to 2024, he posted the AL’s lowest batting common allowed amongst qualifiers (.187) and minimize his residence run fee from 1.59 per 9 to 1.01, a part of an enormous enchancment in his contact profile:
Carlos Rodón Statcast Profile
| Season | Staff | EV | EV Pctile | LA | Barrel% | Brl Pctile | HardHit% | HH Pctile | ERA | xERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | CHW | 89.2 | thirty eighth | 18.7 | 6.6% | 67th | 36.1% | 68th | 2.37 | 2.68 |
| 2022 | SFG | 89.0 | thirty fifth | 19.4 | 6.5% | 66th | 39.7% | thirtieth | 2.88 | 2.64 |
| 2023 | NYY | 91.6 | 2nd | 22.1 | 12.1% | 1st | 41.6% | thirtieth | 6.85 | 5.32 |
| 2024 | NYY | 90.4 | eleventh | 18.1 | 11.0% | 4th | 40.9% | thirty second | 3.96 | 4.12 |
| 2025 | NYY | 88.6 | 66th | 12.8 | 7.5% | 62nd | 38.9% | sixty fourth | 3.09 | 3.31 |
Supply: Baseball Savant
In Rodón’s first season with the Yankees — one wherein he was restricted to 14 begins because of forearm and left hamstring strains in addition to again stiffness, which required a cortisone shot — he ranked close to the very backside amongst certified pitchers in each common exit velocity and barrel fee. Two years later, he was nicely above common in these departments, with a career-low common exit velo in addition to his lowest common launch angle since 2017.
That latter mark coincides with Rodón’s vastly improved groundball fee. His 9.6-point soar from 2024 (33.8%) to ’25 (43.5%) ranked third within the majors amongst pitchers with no less than 50 innings in each seasons, behind Griffin Canning (10.2%) and Tanner Bibee (10.1%). That soar owes one thing to Rodón’s reconfigured repertoire. This yr, he commonly used a sinker for the primary time since 2018, throwing it 31.3% of the time in opposition to lefties, who hit simply .119 and slugged .143 in opposition to it, whereas whiffing on 31.9% of their swings, although simply 3.2% of the time in opposition to righties, who hit .364 and slugged .409 in opposition to it, albeit in simply 23 plate appearances.
Batters hit groundballs on 57.7% of the 52 sinkers they put into play, the very best fee amongst Rodón’s choices save for his curveball, which produced simply seven balls in play:
Carlos Rodón Groundball Fee by Pitch Sort
| Pitch | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-Seamer | 33.9% | 30.7% | 23.9% | 25.6% | 28.4% |
| Slider | 52.9% | 40.5% | 32.6% | 40.0% | 48.0% |
| Changeup | 34.0% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 56.5% | 56.6% |
| Curveball | — | 50.0% | 33.3% | 32.0% | 71.4% |
| Sinker | — | — | — | — | 57.7% |
Throughout Rodón’s media session earlier than the Wild Card Collection opener, I requested him in regards to the “new” pitch, which he reintroduced in collaboration with the Yankees’ analytics division and training employees. “[When] I got here within the league, I had what you name a two-seamer. Again then we didn’t have fairly the motion plots that we do now and understanding pitch motion and pitch profiles the best way we do now,” he stated. “So it was barely a distinct pitch, and the grip was barely completely different. I had an thought of easy methods to throw what you name a sinker, two-seamer from throwing it eight, 9 years in the past… we simply stumbled upon it and the Yankees pitching division refined it. [Pitching coach] Matt Blake had a hand in that, [assistant pitching coach] Preston [Claiborne] had a hand in that. We went with it.”
Rodón’s sinker is available in barely slower than his four-seamer (averaging 91.9 mph vs. 94.1) with virtually a foot extra drop (6.3 inches of induced vertical break vs. 17.6 inches) and extra arm-side motion (14.6 inches vs. 10.8 inches). Earlier than Rodón’s Wild Card Collection begin, Boone described the lefty’s evolution, saying, “He’s a extra full pitcher, [has] extra methods of beating you now.” Extra:
“For the majority of his profession, he was that fastball-slider man, large four-seam fastball up within the zone with the wipeout slider. As he has navigated these final couple of years and clearly had numerous success for us the final couple of years, he’s developed that arsenal a bit bit… He nonetheless has a four-seam [and] slider that’s bread and butter for him. Now he’s incorporating the sinker. The changeup is a very good pitch for him now. He can sluggish you down and spin it in there.
“He has numerous alternative ways to go about it now. There’s been numerous completely different video games the place one thing completely different has been featured and actually been that go-to pitch for him. Add all of it up and it has been a very sturdy yr.”
The opposite notable facet of Rodón’s evolution has been a higher effort to regulate his feelings. His expertise pitching large video games, in addition to his speaking to a number of the Yankees’ big-game pitchers of yesteryear, appears to have helped. “I discovered pretty fast final yr that issues have to be in test, and [I need to] save that vitality for some additional innings down the highway,” he stated of the extent to which he dialed again his celebration of strikeouts. After his tough 3 2/3-inning, four-run begin in opposition to the Royals in Sport 2 of final yr’s Division Collection — a begin that started with the very amped-up lefty strutting round after putting out 5 of the primary eight hitters he confronted earlier than issues escalated — he spoke to Andy Pettitte (now a Yankees advisor) and Gerrit Cole (at present serving as a quasi-assistant pitching coach as he rehabs from Tommy John surgical procedure). “These two, after that begin, obtained my thoughts the place it wanted to be,” he stated.
As for a way all of this may translate to Tuesday’s crucial begin, Rodón has his work minimize out. The Blue Jays tied for third within the majors with a 111 wRC+ in opposition to lefties, and within the two occasions they confronted Rodón — each on the Rogers Centre, inside a span of twenty-two days — they chased him after 5 labor-intensive innings:
- On June 30, Rodón burned by way of 96 pitches, permitting 5 hits and three walks however simply two runs whereas putting out 4. Boone introduced him out to begin the sixth with the Yankees forward 2-1, however pulled him after he yielded a leadoff double to Davis Schneider, then watched the bullpen soften down to permit 4 runs in what ended up as a 5-4 defeat.
- On July 21, six days after Rodón threw a scoreless inning within the All-Star Sport (his first look in three journeys to the Midsummer Basic), he threw 107 pitches, permitting six hits, 5 walks and 4 runs, all within the fifth; the massive blow was a two-run double by Bo Bichette, who’s out of fee for this sequence because of a left knee sprain. After Rodón gained a 14-pitch battle (!) to get Schneider to pop up for the second out, throwing errors by third baseman Oswald Peraza and shortstop Anthony Volpe made the final two runs unearned.
To Boone’s level about Rodón’s having completely different go-to pitches in several outings, within the first of these two begins in opposition to Toronto, his four-seamer (37.5%) and slider (34.4%) accounted for almost three-quarters of his choices, whereas within the second, his four-seamer (50.5%) and changeup (25.2%) made up over three-quarters of his pitches. The Jays had been throughout that slider, hitting .364 and slugging .545 in opposition to it whereas whiffing on simply 5.3% of their swings, however they hit a extra modest .222 and slugged .333 in opposition to the four-seamer, whiffing on 21.4% of their swings. Rodón threw his sinker simply 8.2% of the time in these two video games, with batters swinging at simply six of the 17 he threw them, whiffing on two (one for strike three), fouling three off, and hitting one 100.1 mph to heart discipline for an out.
If supervisor John Schneider matches what he did in opposition to the left-handed Max Fried on Sunday, the one lefties within the Blue Jays lineup is likely to be heart fielder Daulton Varsho (who went 4-for-5 total, with two doubles in two at-bats in opposition to Fried, plus two homers off righty Will Warren) and second baseman-turned-shortstop Andrés Giménez (who struck out and singled in opposition to Fried). Varsho hit for a good 99 wRC+ in 56 plate appearances in opposition to lefties this yr and owns a profession 90 wRC+ in opposition to them; Giménez managed only a 39 wRC+ in 86 PA in opposition to them this yr however equally owns a 92 wRC+ in opposition to them for his profession, with his defensive benefit over Bichette serving to to offset the lack of the latter’s 143 wRC+ in opposition to lefties this yr. Righties Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (163 wRC+ in opposition to lefties), Ernie Clement (146 wRC+), and George Springer (132 wRC+) gave lefties a tough time, and each Alejandro Kirk (113 wRC+) and Davis Schneider (106 wRC+) had been no less than stable. Notably with Tim Hill the one lefty reliever the Yankees are carrying on this sequence, having a platoon drawback isn’t going to be a lot of a priority for Toronto.
Rodón acknowledges the problem, saying in his media session on Sunday, “There’s not numerous miss. They’re powerful to strike out. They drive motion. They put the ball in play. They make groups play protection. They’re fairly athletic. There’s additionally slug inside the lineup. And it makes it powerful. There’s occasions the place you want a strikeout, and simply the miss isn’t there. They appear to have a very good understanding of the zone as nicely. So the chase is low… they’ve a good suggestion of what they wish to do on the plate.”
Concerning that lack of swing-and-miss, the Blue Jays had the majors’ third-lowest swinging-strike fee (9.4%) and lowest strikeout fee (17.8%), with gamers akin to Clement (10.4% strikeout fee), Kirk (11.7%), and Guerrero (13.8%) notably tough to punch out. That stated, Toronto’s 28.9% chase fee was truly the majors’ ninth-highest mark, although the Jays did have the very best out-of-zone contact fee (63.6%) by 4 full proportion factors — which usually works in a pitcher’s favor. Kirk’s .305 common and .356 slugging on pitches exterior the zone had been by far one of the best marks on the staff.
There’s no getting round the truth that the Blue Jays — who will counter Rodón with Shane Bieber — are squarely in charge of this sequence, after profitable the division on the premise of their 8-5 sequence benefit through the common season. For in addition to Rodón has pitched in 2025, and for in addition to he could find yourself pitching Tuesday night time, it nonetheless will not be sufficient for the Yankees to stave off elimination.