Yankees' Carlos Rodon must harness his emotions in ALCS Game 1 start vs. Guardians
Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón speaks to the media during a workout Sunday at Yankee Stadium ahead of his start in Game 1 of the ALCS on Monday. Credit: Howard Simmons
Here’s a reason to be concerned about Carlos Rodon, whom Aaron Boone named on Sunday as the Yankees’ starter for Monday night’s ALCS Game 1 against Cleveland:
Rodon admitted he lost “focus” after giving up a tying home run by Salvador Perez in his lone ALDS start against Kansas City.
Lost focus? In a playoff game? After throwing three scoreless innings and then giving up a solo homer to a future Hall of Famer in the fourth? No wonder Rodon was knocked out later in the inning in the only game the Yankees lost in that series.
And here are reasons to be upbeat about Rodon:
He’s really honest about his foibles and has the right people around him to teach him how to deal with playoff pressure.
According to Rodon, those people are Gerrit Cole and Andy Pettitte. Two pretty good role models. Cole is the ace who closed out the Royals with seven innings of one-run ball in Game 4. Pettitte is a part-time Yankees coach who is the winningest postseason pitcher in baseball history.
“Those are two guys that I can definitely lean on,” Rodon said. “It just kind of goes back to how do you keep your composure through the start?”
Rodon will take the mound on Monday night in front of what will be a raucous crowd at Yankee Stadium — a crowd that will have legitimate doubts as to whether he can live up to the moment.
It’s not Rodon’s stuff that is at issue. It’s not easy to find a lefthander with a mid-90s fastball, wipeout slider and improving changeup. That arsenal is why the Yankees gave him six years and $162 million before the 2023 season.
But Rodon’s emotions can get the better of him, which he admits. One of the lasting images of his ALDS start is Rodon prancing around the mound, shaking his head and sticking out his tongue after striking out all three batters in the first inning.
Suffice to say those actions did not endear him to the Royals, who knocked him out in a four-run fourth.
It is a double standard that pitchers are not supposed to celebrate but batters can dance a tango on the way to first base after a big home run. On Sunday, I asked Rodon what he thinks about this and whether he heard any blowback — not from fans or talking heads, but from the Royals themselves.
He said he did.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Rodon said before answering it quite well. “People say stuff, as you know, and we all know that [the Royals] said some things. If you strike someone out, if you want to act a certain way, sure, go about it your way. If you hit a homer off me 900 feet, however far, if you want to flip your bat, flip your bat. I'm not gonna . . . I mean, you did something good.
"This game's hard. It's not easy. So [a] little celebration is fine. I got a little amped up in the first there, and I was definitely energized. I can have a better poker face about it. Just stay focused on the task at hand. Because it is not only just one inning, it's nine innings of baseball and [the ALDS] is a five-game series. We are in the LCS. Someone else isn’t.”
By “someone else,” Rodon meant the Royals. Sweet diss!
The issue for Rodon is channeling that fire and not burning out after a few innings. He pointed to Cole as a shining example, calling him “a robot” for the way he keeps his emotions in check during a game.
Rodon noted that Cole finally let out a giant scream after getting the last out of the seventh on a drive to the rightfield wall that fell a few feet short of being a tying two-run homer by Kansas City’s Kyle Isbel.
“The biggest thing I saw from him,” Rodon said, “he didn't react every inning. lf you watch him come out, [he’s] just like a robot walking to the dugout, and then at the end of the seventh, it's a big roar, because he knows ‘I did my job.’ That's kind of one thing that resonated with me from that start.”
Boone, who chose Rodon over Clarke Schmidt for the ALCS opener with Cole not available until Game 2, said he did so because “he’s a really good pitcher.”
Of Rodon’s emotion-filled ALDS start, Boone said: “That’s one of the learning things you kind of go through. I think he’s in a really good spot. Throwing the ball well.”
With Rodon, throwing the ball well seems like only half the battle.
As Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
Even if Yogi didn’t actually say that, it would seem to apply to Rodon.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.