'He was the driver': Behind $162 million lefty Carlos Rodón, Yankees capture ALCS Game 1

NEW YORK – Before the biggest start of his life, Carlos Rodón utilized the resources that come with being a New York Yankee.

And then he justified the significant investment New York has placed in his burly left arm.

Monday night at Yankee Stadium, Rodón lived up to the expectations the Yankees levied upon him when he signed a six-year, $162 million contract before the 2023 season. Two seasons of injury-plagued, erratic, 4.74-ERA teeth-gnashing were all but forgotten with every swing and miss by a Cleveland Guardian, every zero hung on the scoreboard.

And in Game 1 of this American League Championship Series, Rodón not only joined this postseason party burgeoning in the Bronx, but showed he may be a significant reason why the Yankees just might hang World Series banner No. 28.

New York registered a 5-2 victory and claimed a 1-0 ALCS lead thanks in no small part to its might, literal and financial. Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton each deposited home run balls in the outfield bullpens. Newly minted closer Luke Weaver put out a flash fire in the eighth, stranding the tying run at the plate, and continued his perfect postseason by striking out the side in the ninth for a five-out save.

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Yet it was Rodón who gave the Yankees the edge and made up for many of his regular season shortcomings with six dominant innings when it mattered most.

“He was the driver tonight,” says Stanton, who capped the Yankees’ scoring with a 439-foot smash to left field in the seventh inning, moving past Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson with his 13^th career postseason home run.

“He showed how prepared and focused he was.”

The Yankees are three wins from the World Series for the first time since 2009, and they’re now 4-1 in this postseason; that lone blemish belongs to Rodón.

He came out great guns in Game 2 of the Division Series against Kansas City, blowing through three scoreless innings and exulting in a manner befitting a sprint, and not the long-distance slog that marks any prosperous October run.

Yet he hit the wall and blew the lead in the fourth inning that night, giving up all four runs and failing to complete the frame. With ace Gerrit Cole pitching the clincher in Kansas City and Rodón given the Game 1 ball in the ALCS, that simply could not happen again.

So Rodón listened, and learned. He got a “debrief,” as pitching coach Matt Blake put it, from his pinstriped mentor, fellow lefty Andy Pettitte, about channeling emotions in the postseason. He watched and learned when Cole looked like he was flatlining through six innings in the clincher at Kansas City, only letting it all out when he recorded the 21^st out of the game.

Rodón did him one better.

He began the night by winning a nine-pitch fight with arguably baseball’s toughest out, Guardians leadoff hitter Steven Kwan. He finished it with a nine-pitch battle against Cleveland’s perennial All-Star, Jose Ramirez.

The switch-hitter smoked that last pitch to center field, where Aaron Judge ranged into the gap to track the ball down.

It was Rodón’s 93^rd pitch. His night was surely over. Yet even then, he kept what he called Cole’s “poker face,” and simply pointed, in appreciation, to the 6-7 Judge.

“The goal was to just stay in control of what I can do, obviously physically and emotionally,” says Rodón. “I thought I executed that well tonight.

“I watched Gerrit throw that Game 4 in Kansas City, and mentally I was taking notes on how he was going out there and going about it, and I just wanted to kind of go about it the same way.”

At one point, Rodón retired 11 in a row, and 13 of his final 15 batters. He compiled an astounding 25 swings and misses, almost all on his deadly fastball-slider combo, struck out nine, walked none.

Soto and Stanton’s bookend home runs were augmented by a grim display from Guardians starter Alex Cobb and reliever Joey Cantillo, who combined to walk six batters in recording nine outs. Cantillo bounced a pair of bases-loaded wild pitches that allowed Judge and Stanton to scamper home with add-on runs.

Brayan Rocchio sullied Rodón’s shutout bid with a leadoff homer in the sixth, and Cleveland nearly ambushed the Yankees with three consecutive eighth-inning singles of reliever Tim Hill. That only expedited Weaver’s entrance – to a techno-fied version of Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver.” He struck out four of the six batters he faced for his fourth save this postseason.

Cole will start Game 2. The Yankees are poised to seize command before this series shifts to Ohio.

“There's still three to get,” says Stanton. “So we know this is good, but in our eyes, we haven't done nothing yet.

“We've got to win three out of six, and we take that as three out of three.”

Still, it was hard for the Yankees to ignore the significance of winning Game 1, and the leading man in that cause, and how Rodón adjusted from his last time out.

“There was some noise around how the outing ended last time after being so sharp early,” says Blake, the pitching coach. “To see him come and complete six solid innings I thought was huge for everybody, including him. To put that outing behind him and now get ready for the next one.

“He was very aware of what the last outing ended up being, and how emotions got away from him early. And after each inning, you could tell he was trying to stay steady and be neutral about it and keep collecting outs.”

Blake said as Rodón’s emotions ran high, the Royals “took note of it, spoke about it. And it’s like we don’t need to open that up to the other team.”

No worries. Monday, Rodón stayed medium all night, a trait that will serve him well if he’s needed for a Game 5 start. For now, it’d be tough to top this outing as a career highlight.

“There's no bigger stage in baseball,” says Rodón, “ so I would say it's definitely up there.

Well, there is one more, bigger, stage. And Rodón pushed the Yankees that much closer to it.

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