About Last Night: Sox Even The Series With 8-4 Win Over Yanks

By Andy Singer

June 16th, 2024

The Big Story

In a season during which the Yankees have almost always played good baseball, last night was as sloppy a game as the Yankees are capable of playing. Carlos Rodon came out pitching totally naked for the first time this season. Through his first two innings, it looked as though he was pitching on borrowed time, but Rodon largely righted the ship, striking out 6 without giving up a hit or a walk in his next 3 innings. The damage was done, however, as the Yankees' offense just couldn't quite push enough runs across home plate when it counted most, struggling to finish the job each time they had the Red Sox's pitchers up against the wall.

The Yankees have been on a torrid stretch through the early part of this season, and games like this happen. As long as they take the series on Sunday night, I'll gladly forget about this game.

A Deeper Dive

Rodon Was Pitching Naked, Until He Wasn't

This was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance if ever I've seen one from Carlos Rodon. He couldn't buy a swinging strike on any of his pitches that were over the plate through the first two innings, and both his control and command was simply awful. Rodon was either over the middle of the plate with his pitches or 2 feet off of the strike zone. While the velocity on his fastball was fine, none of his pitches had their usual life. He couldn't trust that he'd find the corners of the plate with his breaking stuff, so he kept going back to the fastball in hitters' counts, and the Red Sox made him pay. Ultimately, Rodon gave up 7 hits, 3 walks, and 5 earned runs in his first 2 innings of pitching. I was shocked that the Yankees even let him go into the 2nd inning initially.

Then, everything changed. In fact, though the results weren't immediate, I noticed a shift in Rodon during Rafael Devers' at-bat in the 2nd inning, an at-bat that ironically led to an RBI hit for Devers. Rodon pulled the cutter out of retirement and mixed nothing but cutters and fastballs to Devers in an 8-pitch at-bat. Suddenly, Rodon's pitches had life. To get the out, I strongly believe he needed the slider as his out pitch, but it was during this at-bat that Rodon found something, likely mechanical, to get his start back on track.

The mark of a good pitcher is what you do when you don't have your best stuff. Rodon had nothing when he started this game, and it was the exact type of game that would have gotten completely away from Rodon last season. This year, Rodon battled, and did everything he could to keep his team in the game.

The Offense Couldn't Score When It Counted Most

The Yankees hung with the Red Sox until the 8th inning. It was also the Yankees' best chance as an offense to make a comeback, but it just wasn't meant to be. Trailing 6-3 in the Top of the 8th, the Yankees loaded the bases after a Stanton strikeout to begin the inning. Rizzo and Torres drew walks while Wells dunked a single in to CF off of old friend, Greg Weissert, who is now a staple in the back of the Red Sox's bullpen. Curiously, Boone decided pinch run for Wells at 1B, who is not a bad runner.

DJ LeMahieu, who had two critical RBIs earlier in the game on a bloop single, just doesn't seem to be able to put a charge into any balls, grounded into a fielder's choice at SS to plate one run, but the second out of the inning seemed to take the wind out of the Yankees' sails. Volpe followed LeMahieu with a fly ball to end the threat.

I knew the Yankees would lose right when the top half of the inning ended.

A Sloppy 8th Inning

Jose Trevino had a really rough 8th inning catching in relief of Austin Wells, who left the game in favor of a pinch runner in the top half of the inning. Trevino allowed Duran to advance to 2B on an RBI single to CF, as it appeared Trevino held onto the ball for an odd amount of time. Not to be outdone, Trevino then made a truly terrible throw later in the inning while attempting to pick off the speedy Duran at 3B on a snap throw, giving Oswaldo Cabrera no shot at keeping the ball in front of him. It's tough to come in and catch straight from the bench, but Trevino knows better on both plays.

Victor Gonzalez is not a big league arm right now, and his ERA is built off of magic and luck. The law of averages came for him last night. Time to find another lefty for the bullpen.

Consistent Umpiring

The Yankees had a problem with the strike zone last night. The home plate ump had a wide strike zone, consistently calling balls just off the plate in the pitcher's favor, particularly on Cooper Criswell's slider early in the game. They weren't strikes, but to be fair, the ump called it both ways. It was a wide strike zone for both sides, but it was fair, so I'm not upset.

Notable Performances

Juan Soto was 1-3 with 2 walks and a good 2-run homer to left-center just over the Green Monster.

Giancarlo Stanton was 2-4, and worked some good at-bats.

Carlos Rodon finished with 5 IP, 7 H, 3 BB, 5 ER, 7 K. It could have been so much worse.

Better To Forget

Anthony Volpe was 0-5 with 2 K's.

Alex Verdugo was 0-5.

Victor Gonzalez allowed 2 H, 1 BB, and 2 ER in 1 IP

Looking To Tomorrow

Happy Father's Day to all with children today! The Yankees take on the Red Sox in a rubber match on national television for the weekly Sunday night game today. Stroman takes on Crawford at 7:10 PM.