How Carlos Rodón, with relievers Pettitte and Cole, rewarded the Yankees’ Game 1 gamble

NEW YORK – That’s why the Yankees paid Carlos Rodón $162 million over six years: to have a quality poker face.

Rodon’s biggest challenge in taking the mound for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series wasn’t navigating Cleveland’s dangerous lineup. Rodón’s greatest enemy was actually him.

When a veteran lets his emotions control his output, things can go wrong. That’s what happened in his first postseason match against the Royals; he was ejected too early and too often — sticking his tongue out and crying after a first-inning hit — and allowed his focus to slip on the job at hand. He was pulled after coughing up four earned runs in 3.2 innings against Kansas City.

But he learned a lot in the week between his next playoff start. He studied Gerrit Cole, got advice from Andy Pettitte, and said he’ll be better next time. Still, it’s one thing to do all the preparation, but it’s another to actually do it on the mound — not least at the start of the playoffs.

Finally, in his team’s 5-2 win over the Guardians on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, the fiery lefty put his career 11.37 postseason ERA behind him and focused with authority.

“The goal was to maintain control,” said Rodón. “You always control what I can do, physically and emotionally. I thought I did that well tonight.”

He was humble. Rodón struck out nine batters and allowed one run in three over six innings, and kept his emotions in check. But it was easy to say that this was Rodón’s fight. Idleness is not second nature to him. He seemed to be putting a lot of effort into controlling his emotions as he went through his diet of fastballs, sliders, curveballs and changeups. Rather than admit that the crowd was too strong for him, Rodón shrugged his shoulders and kept his head up on the mound. The southpaw went on to register 25 swings and misses.

He was locked in, and it showed.

Rodón’s only hit of the night came on Bryan Rocchio’s home run to lead off the sixth inning. But there was no subsequent collapse. There was no look of confusion as he watched Rocchio’s long ball go over the left field wall. He retired the next three batters and ended his outing by pointing his glove at Aaron Judge, who came down with a rocket off the bat of José Ramírez in the final out of the sixth. Rodón knocked down the Guardians slugger three times against him.

“I think he knew exactly what the last outing was and how the emotions got out of him early,” Yankees coach Matt Blake said. “That was going to be his focus the whole game. Every inning you could tell he was trying to stay calm and neutral about it and continue to collect the outs.”

While Rodón went to work, the Yankees continued. Juan Soto hit his first home run of the postseason as a Yankee in the third inning, pitching New York on the board leading 1-0. Giancarlo Stanton added insurance in the seventh with his second home run of the postseason, which was his 13th career playoff home run since 2018. Stanton has a 1.244 OPS in five postseason games this October. But while Soto, Stanton and Aaron Judge all collected RBIs in the Game 1 victory, it was Rodón who stood out as the game changer.

“He was the driver tonight,” Stanton said of Rodón. “Juan got us going on the attacking side, but Carlos was holding them down and giving us scoring opportunities and added to it.”

Rodón did not achieve this image of calm alone.

Days after the Royals discovered his emotions were running high and sent him to the park in the fourth inning, Rodón sought advice from Pettitte, the former Yankees southpaw and five-time World Series champion, on how to keep a good poker face on the mound. . Pettitte, currently in a consultant role with the Yankees, won 63.3% of his postseason decisions in part by refusing to let the opponent get in on his thoughts and feelings. Rodón said Pettitte’s advice left an impression.

Then, when Cole homered for the Royals in Kansas City last Thursday, Rodón leaned against the dugout railing and watched his every reaction. Fascinated, Rodón kept his eyes on Cole as the drama unfolded between Anthony Volpe and Maikel Garcia at second base. Rodón watched as Cole got upset without letting the situation spoil what was a solid approach.

“You can tell he’s angry,” Rodón said of Cole. “But he just keeps it on the mound and goes back to the mound. They end up scoring, but he keeps them one run. The biggest thing I saw from him in the seventh, he didn’t do anything. The inning. When you watch him come out, it’s like a robot walking to the dugout, it just roars because you know, I did it. my job that started.”

Rodón tried to be like a robot Cole against Cleveland and, for the most part, he was. His six innings of one-run ball were not only important to the Yankees, who took a 1-0 lead in the Guardian Series to start the ALCS, but the biggest answer to manager Aaron Boone’s criticism came from walking Rodón in the game. the starting point. With Cole sitting out Game 2 on four days’ rest, Boone was choosing between right-hander Clarke Schmidt or Rodón in the series opener. Cleveland was the third-best offensive team in the AL against lefties in the regular season, so no one would have blamed Boone if he chose to start Schmidt in Game 1.

But Rodón was signed by the Yankees on Monday; to a packed house of 47,264 in the Bronx, he played his part as a deadly 1-2 punch alongside Cole, when he responded in front of the zoo that is the New York media.

The mental and physical flow Rodón saw in Game 1 was the elixir of the horrendous postseason ERA he brought into Monday night’s outing. That’s exactly what the Yankees expected from Rodón when they made him the highest-paid pitcher in the 2023 free agency. After being limited to 14 starts due to injury last year, and posting a horrendous 6.85 ERA in the process, this was Rodón’s year to start earning his contract. He showed up in spring training remarkably poorly, then stayed out of the trainer’s room for the rest of the season, and bounced back with a 3.96 ERA over a career-high 32 starts and 175 innings.

Rodón’s 26-week stretch in the regular season helped the Yankees get to this point, especially when Cole missed two-plus months with an elbow injury. But Rodón could give the Yankees a big, important lift by repeating this trend in his next season.

The Yankees have won three times since advancing to the World Series. Rodón can count on one hand how often he will need his poker face.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow him on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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