Last Wednesday night, Carlos Rodon took the mound at Yankee Stadium with his team facing elimination, and threw six innings of three-run ball to keep the Yankees in an eventual 4-3 win, which tied the Wild Card Series at 1-1 and got them to a deciding Game 3.
Tuesday night, it’s a slightly different circumstance, as Rodon is once again pitching to keep the Yankees’ season alive – only this time, down 2-0 to Toronto in the ALDS, the Yankees must win three in a row starting with the lefty’s outing.
“We approach it like we have really all season, but even more specifically, the last six, eight weeks where we feel like we've been playing with a lot on the line every single day,” manager Aaron Boone said during Monday’s workout day in the Bronx. “We'll go into our hitters' meeting, and it's about win today, period, and not getting ahead of that and even keeping it smaller than that. It's about going up and trying to win every pitch. Keep it small. Keep it simple and know that you go out and win a ballgame tomorrow, that's as far as you go. That's how we'll look at it, and I know that's how our guys will be. You've got a job to do. And that next play, that next pitch, that next game becomes the most important thing, and that's where you've got to keep your focus.”
The Blue Jays have put 23 runs on the board in two blowout wins so far in this series, so it’s going to be a challenge for Rodon to keep a team that has struck out just seven times in the first two games, and the second-fewest times of all 30 MLB teams this regular season, in check.
“There’s not a lot of miss. They’re tough to strike out – they put the ball in play and make teams play defense, and there’s slug within the lineup,” Rodon said Sunday before Game 2. “That makes it tough; there’s times where you need a strikeout, and just the miss isn't there. They seem to have a really good understanding of the zone as well. The chase is low, and they have a good idea of what they want to do at the plate, so just trying to rely on some weak contact.”
Rodon has been a strikeout-heavy pitcher his whole career, which even he admits, but as much as Max Fried had trouble with the Jays in Game 2, Rodon has picked up some tips from his fellow southpaw.
“The Blue Jays make a ton of contact, and I’ve always chased the strikeout – but watching Max rely on weak contact and getting early outs, one thing I’ve taken from him is if we can get a two-pitch out of not make this a seven-pitch at-bat, it's better to force contact and let the defense do the work for you,” Rodon said.
Also paramount for Rodon, as the Yankees’ bullpen allowed eight runs in the final two innings of Game 1, so Toronto knows what they’re feasting on there – but one thing Rodon will have going for him is the atmosphere, which, if the Wild Card Series is any indication, will be even more raucous than we’ve seen in the regular season.
“It’s a lot louder; I can't say there's more people because it seems like we're always sold out, but I guess we're at max capacity during the playoffs, so I'm sure we stuff in an extra thousand that we can somewhere,” Rodon said of Yankee Stadium in the postseason. “It's just the energy is a lot more heightened. It's really fun. It's a treat to be able to step on the mound in Yankee Stadium during the playoffs.”
To have that chance again this October, Rodon must be the pitcher who had 18 quality starts this season and one more last week, and not the one who went just five innings both times he faced Toronto this season.
Otherwise, the Yankees could be swept out of the postseason, and even a win followed by a loss in Game 4 or a possible Game 5 means another long winter wondering what could’ve been.
“A ton,” Boone said when asked his confidence level in Rodon. “He's been obviously one of our horses this year. He's had a great year, and any time we give him the ball, we feel like we have an excellent chance to win. That will be the same tomorrow. He'll be ready to roll and hopefully get us off to a good start.”