From Bryan Hoch:
There are no forests in which it’s acceptable to swing an axe here in the South Bronx, yet for more than a calendar year, Carlos Rodón has found himself in the business of “chopping wood.” Within the Yankees’ clubhouse walls, the phrase serves as a short-hand reminder to show up with grit, purpose and tenacity.
It’s voiced most frequently by Aaron Boone; in a light moment recently, someone pointed out that the manager doesn’t seem to use it for anyone else on his roster. Boone chuckled and shrugged; with Rodón, the term just seems to fit. The club’s resident lefty lumberjack continued to hack away on Thursday, hurling six scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over the Rangers at Yankee Stadium.
“He’s been saying it a lot. It’s kind of his thing with me: ‘Just go out there and go to work,’” Rodón said, with a knowing grin. “‘Show up, get on the mound and keep posting.’ That’s it. I want to go out there and get as many outs as I can – just keep your head down, and keep going.”
He’s following the plan perfectly. Rodón’s strong effort lowered his season ERA to 2.88, leading the Yankees to their third series sweep of the season (also March 27-30 vs. Milwaukee and April 14-16 vs. Kansas City). New York has won 11 of its past 14 games, moving a season-high 11 games over .500 (30-19).
Though the Yankees have outscored opponents 86-42 over those 14 contests, this one saw them squeak by with the slimmest of margins. Jorbit Vivas rounded the bases for his first Major League home run, a fifth-inning shot off right-hander Nathan Eovaldi.
I mean, come the fuck on, right? “Yeah, we have this saying that means to have a purpose when you pitch, and to pitch with tenacity. It’s really big in the clubhouse. I mean, no one actually says it to anyone but me, but it’s really big in our clubhouse!”
In other words, Rodón basically just let us know what we all already knew, that he is a headcase who has to be constantly reminded to just concentrate and do his fucking job. He’s also 32 years old, and needs to be constantly reminded of this. He makes $26 million a year, and needs to be constantly reminded of this.
However, I mean, what the fuck, right? The dude has a 2.88 ERA right now. He threw six shutout innings and he didn’t even have particularly good command. He’s just buckling down, and doing the work, and because his stuff is extraordinarily good, buckling down leads to great results.
It’s similar to Gil, Warren, and Schmidt, but those dudes were all young pitchers without past success like Rodon (who was one of the four-five best pitchers in baseball in the two years between 2021-22), so that is normal pitching development. Rodon is ABnormal, so he really had to get here by himself, and I guess it’s nice that he actually seems to have gotten here. Maybe Gerrit Cole being lost for the season made him realize that this team desperately needs him to be a true #2 starter to have ANY shot at postseason success.
If he keeps it up, and Warren and Schmidt keep it up, and Gil returns, the Yankees won’t even need to GET a starter on the market, right? That’s fucking HUGE from a trade assets standpoint. They might be able to pivot to getting a third baseman or a second baseman.
Anyhow, great win, although it was frustrating watching them hit Eovaldi JUST well enough to never score a run before Vivas’ surprising home run. In addition, while Leiter, Williams, and Weaver worked excellently in this one, they obviously can’t use Williams and Weaver in every game, so the injury to Fernando Cruz (which legit DOES sound like a short term injury, thankfully) really messes their high leverage depth up. For instance, in the first game against Colorado, their high leverage guys are probably Loaisiga (who is legitimately good) and…uhmm…Ian Hamilton? Tim Hill? Yerry De los Santos? Not so good, as you might imagine. Leiter might be the closer in Game 1, which is…you know, not good. Blake Headrick might be needed for MULTIPLE innings if Schmidt throws too many pitches like he often does.
Featured image is JC Escarra embracing Rodon after Rodon completed six scoreless innings. Escarra has been doing this cool thing where he walks with the pitcher, embraces them, and celebrates their outing when it’s done. That’s the sort of thing that probably really endears you to pitchers.
Also, long season, but talk about a labored lead
I have to believe Hoch isn’t writing these ledes. They’re pretty uniformly terrible.
That does not exclude Hoch.
also this series has enormous trap potential
I don’t really fault Rodon for that. Different sorts of psyches need all sorts of props, tricks, tactics and strategies. Some people never find them. After being really, really good, Rodon suddenly found he needed one – that, of course, was NOT fun to watch. But if he’s just as suddenly found something that makes him good again, that’s more than cool.
It was more funny that they said it was a constant saying in the clubhouse, but then it turned out to only be a constant saying with just him. That was amusing.
Yeah, laughed at that!
Same. He should just lean into it. “I’m a head case and I’m ok!”
I sleep all night, and I pitch all day!
I’m way beyond 32 and I too need constant reminding to do my job. Of course I’m not being paid $26m a year.
The Yankees are a -300 favorite and will likely be more than that by first pitch.
The trappiest of all trap games.
If I was a gambling man I’d have a flutter
Martian:
https://x.com/OptaSTATS/status/1925566275515732285?t=22Jy7yfkoLeqTvbEaXZZmw&s=19
I really, really hope that ends up meaning something.
A big, bright, beautiful, long-lasting something!
It’s obviously nice, but it also inherently limits itself to just switch hitters, so, like, huh?
Narvaez hitting so well for Boston kind of irks me. Hopefully he settles down.
So you think 279/802 is better than 175/631? And I’ve been less than impressed with JC’s defense.
Absolutely – didn’t it seem odd that how bad he looked yesterday didn’t make the narrative at all?
What a weird time to give Belli a day off.
I think other than Judge it’s semi random who gets the day off. And if they can’t light up Tanner Gordon, they don’t deserve to win.
Oh sure, that’s what I mean, though, since they ALL should be able to hit Gordon, you’re basically fucking the guy who has to sit, so why would it be Belli? Wouldn’t Rice be the low man on the totem pole that doesn’t get to hit against the shitty starter?
I don’t know. I’d be more confident that Bellinger can handle it, and I’d be more inclined to invest in Rice’s development than Bellinger’s.
Bregman, far more deserving of punishment than Pete Rose ever was, is surely out for at least a week or two.