NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Rodón controlled his emotions — and the Cleveland Guardians’ bats.
In a reversal from his amped-up outing in the Division Series last week, Rodón dominated for six innings while helping the New York Yankees to a 5-2 victory in Monday night’s AL Championship Series opener for his first career postseason win.
“The goal was to just stay in control, stay in control of what I can do, obviously physically and emotionally,” Rodón said. “I thought I executed that well tonight.”
Rodón lost Game 2 of the Division Series to Kansas City when he admittedly overthrew. His fastball was 1.6 mph above his season average and after striking out his first three batters and allowing just two hits through three innings, he gave up a leadoff home run to Salvador Perez that sparked a four-run fourth in a 4-2 defeat.
That dropped Rodón to 0-2 with an 11.37 ERA in three postseason appearances, including a pair of starts. He studied Gerrit Cole in the Yankees’ clinching 3-1 win in Game 4 and tried to emulate the ace’s demeanor.
“There’s runners on and he gets out of a jam,” Rodón said. “It’s pretty even keel walking off the mound. There’s no screaming. There’s no fist pumping or anything. He’s just, like I said, like a robot. He walks out and walks across the line and into the dugout.”
Cole took Rodón’s attention as a compliment after his teammate pitched like a rotation complement.
“I think it’s just one of those things, as players we’re constantly adjusting to the experiences that we have,” Cole said. “Sometimes you can’t predict everything and when something doesn’t go your way, you’re challenged to adjust. I think he did a great job.”
Rodón struck out nine and walked none, getting 25 misses among 53 swings, the most for the Yankees in a postseason game since pitch-tracking started in 2008. His pitches broke so much that catcher Austin Wells had to throw to first three times on strikeouts to get the putouts.
“We talked about how would he take the experience of the first time out, and I felt like he totally applied all of that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he was just in complete command of himself and of his emotions.”
Rodón limited the Guardians to a pair of singles before Brayan Rocchio’s sixth-inning homer.
“He was very aware what the last outing ended up being and just kind of how the emotions just got a little bit away from him early,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “Each inning you could tell he was trying to stay steady and be neutral about it and just keep collecting outs.”
Boone described Rodón’s change in attitude as adding poise to intensity.
“It’s not that it’s hard,” Rodón said. “It’s just being mindful of it and being focused on the next pitch, and I think that kind of leads to that robot — that poker face.”
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