Yankees have trump card that could give them winning hand in Rays showdown
· Yahoo Sports
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees thought about starting Carlos Rodon over Cam Schlittler for their Wild Card Series opener last week.
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That’s how good the left-hander was in September. In four starts, Rodon pitched to a 1.42 ERA, allowing five runs, four earned, over 25.1 innings.
Rodon’s last regular-season start was his best in two seasons. With the Rays in New York for a four-game series and one win away from clinching the AL East, Rodon started Game 1 of a doubleheader on Sept. 22 and held the Rays’ ‘A’ lineup to two hits over eight shutout innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.
After a lot of debate, manager Aaron Boone decided to go with Schlittler for the Wild Card Series opener against the Red Sox.
Choosing the American League Cy Young shoo-in was the right call, and it worked out. Schlittler was great again throwing 6.1 shutout innings in a 9-0 victory over Boston.
For Game 2, Rodon again was in the discussion, but the Yankees opted for their other ace left-hander. Max Fried was a good choice, too, because there are no bad options when you have four aces in a four-man playoff rotation.
That decision had Rodon available for his first bullpen duties since he was with the White Sox in 2020, but the Yankees didn’t need him. Fried was excellent holding the Red Sox to one run in six innings and the Yankees swept the best of three with a 9-2 cakewalk.
Rodon didn’t complain. He was fired up about the sweep while patiently awaiting a turn. He deserves a start. He’s a three-time All-Star who’s been good to excellent when he’s been healthy this season. He began the season on the IL recovering from offseason elbow surgery and was sidelined from July 3 to Aug. 18 with elbow inflammation, but he was 7-3 with a 2.67 ERA in his 16 starts.
Rodon pitched at least six innings just six times, as he was building up his pitch count in half of his starts, but he allowed three or fewer runs in all of them and two or fewer 11 times.
Rodon is still waiting for a chance because Boone picked Gerrit Cole to start Saturday night’s Division Series opener with the Rays, a 1-0 Yankees loss, and Schlittler will be on the mound for Monday night’s Game 2 on regular rest.
After Tuesday’s travel day, Boone finally might unleash Rodon on 14 days’ rest for Game 3, which will either give the Yankees a chance to go up 2-games-to-1 or avoid being swept. But as of Sunday’s off day, Boone also was considering coming back with Fried on one extra day of rest for Game 3.
“It will be one or the other,” Boone said Sunday. “We’re still working through that. Kind of depends maybe a little bit how these games unfold and how we want to make guys available.
Boone isn’t ruling out using Rodon in relief in Game 2, or Game 3 if Fried gets the start.
Rodon hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing. He’s playing catch every day. He’s thrown a bullpen since his last start and last Thursday he stayed semi-stretched out throwing to hitters for four innings of live BP, but the adrenaline isn’t the same.
There’s no telling how this long layoff from competitive pitching will affect Rodon when he finally gets into a playoff game.
Will he be as sharp as he was the last time he faced the Rays?
Here’s the thing that could sway this series:
If the Yankees get into a long game Monday and Rodon gives them multiple innings out of the bullpen, he probably wouldn’t be available for Game 3 or 4. That would force the Yankees to go with Fried for Game 3, then come back with Cole on regular rest if there’s a Game 4 with Schlittler lined up for Game 5 next Saturday at Tropicana Field if the series goes the distance.
“We’ll decide how we want to use him, as far as do we want another bullpen ahead of his next one?” Boone said. “Do we want to make him available in a Game 2, 3 scenario in some way, shape, or form?
“So we’re kind of working through that and won’t necessarily reveal how we go there the rest of the way, too.”
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