Carlos Rodon Comes Through. NY 8 Boston 2

In his biggest start of the season so far — Carlos Rodon came through — stifling the Red Sox into the 7th inning to lead the Yankees to an easy 8-2 win on a Sunday night at Fenway, the game nationally broadcast on ESPN.

It was Rodon’s 2nd great start in a row — having pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball against Tampa last week, and with 3 decent starts before that he is slowly turning the page on a season that he started 9-2 2.93 by early June, and then went to 9-7 4.63 by mid July.

Rodon’s one scare was in the 4th, when, cruising with a 4-0 lead, he allowed consecutive leadoff homers to Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong, and a triple to Rafael Devers to start the inning. But then he got tough, stranding Devers on 3rd, and continued to rip through the Boston lineup into the 7th.

And the Yankee offense gave him plenty of cushion — a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound in the 1st, and 8 runs overall with lots of singles and doubles and sac flies — no homers.

“The offense starting off with 3 runs,” said Rodon afterwards when asked what was clicking for him. “That was a big way to show up — 3 early runs; just pitch with a lead and attack the zone, and just go with Austin — run with the pitch calling and just let things happen.”

NY takes 2 of 3 in the weekend series, and improves to 62-45, remaining 1 game back of Baltimore for 1st. Boston falls to 55-49 — 5.5 behind the Yankees.

1. Yanks Jump on Top

Just like the night before, the Yanks jumped on top of Boston with 3 runs in the top of the 1st. This time Tanner Houck was the pitcher, and Alex Verdugo — who has been hot — greeted him with a double to center to lead off.

Juan Soto grounded out but Aaron Judge ripped a single to opposite-field right and it was 1-0 NY.

Austin Wells — who just keeps hitting and hitting — ripped a double to left to put runners on 2nd and 3rd, and, after newly acquired Jazz Chisholm struck out in his 1st Yankee at bat — Gleyber Torres ripped a single to center for 2 runs and a 3-0 Yankee lead.

2. Yanks Go Up 4-0 Thanks to Wells

Austin Wells was at the heart of the scoring again in the top of the 4th — leading off with a single and going to 2nd on an error by Tyler O’Neill in right. Wells is Fast and runs the bases with aggression.

Wells went to 3rd on a groundout by Grisham, and scored on a sac fly by Ben Rice. NY 4 Boston 0.

3. Rodon Commanding

Meanwhile Carlos Rodon was commanding from the start — mixing in his WICKED off-speed pitches from the get-go and using his 96-MPH hard fastball to blow by hitters.

He pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st and 2nd, and easily pitched around a leadoff single by Boston newcomer Danny Jansen in the 3rd — striking out the last 2 batters of the inning (Westbrook and Jarren Duran).

But in the 4th came the leadoff homers to Refsnyder and Wong, and the triple to Devers — making it a 4-2 game with a runner on 3rd, nobody out. Rodon got tough — striking out Tyler O’Neill, getting Romy Gonzalez to ground out to Anthony Volpe at shortstop — not scoring the run — and then — after walking Jansen — struck out Ceddanne Rafaela to end the inning.

Rodon then Cruised — pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th and 6th, and getting the first out of the 7th before yielding a single to Jansen and being relieved at 106 pitches, leading 5-2.

4. Wells Sac Fly Makes it 5-2 in 7th

The Yanks got Rodon some breathing room in the top of the 7th — a 1-out double by Alex Verdugo off lefty Cam Booser, and a walk by Juan Soto brought in old friend Greg Weissert — who walked Aaron Judge to load the bases with 1 out.

Austin Wells — so good at putting the ball in the air and who rarely strikes out — hit a sac fly to left for a run and 5-2 Yankee lead.

5. Cousins Terrific

NFL star Kirk Cousins’ cousin Jake Cousins relieved Rodon in the bottom of the 7th with 1 out and a runner on 1st, and immediately allowed a single to put runners on the corners. But Cousins made all the cousins happy by striking out the next 2 batters — pinch hitter Dominic Smith and Jarren Duran — to end the inning.

Cousins got the first 2 outs of the 8th before yielding to Caleb Ferguson — another terrific outing for Cousins, the 29-year-old, 6’4 righthander who came up with Milwaukee, pitching the last 3 years there, before being signed by the White Sox as a free agent this winter, and being acquired by the Yankees for cash on March 31, just before the season started.

6. Oswaldo Gets to Weissert in 8th

The Yanks made it a romp in the top of the 8th against Weissert — Gleyber Torres reaching on an error by shortstop Gonzalez, Ben Rice ripping a double to center, Volpe grounding out, but Oswaldo Cabrera coming up with another big hit — a ground rule double to right center for a 7-2 Yankee lead.

Oswaldo will be getting less playing time with the acquisition of Chisholm, and that’s a shame.

7. Jazz Gets First Hit as Yank

Jazz Chisholm beat out an infield hit to lead off the 9th — his first hit as a Yankee — went to 2nd on a groundout, stole 3rd, and scored on a — get this — DJ LeMahieu sac fly to right center (DJ getting the ball in the air) for an 8-2 Yankee lead.

8. Caleb Finishes

Caleb Ferguson finished the game off — pitching the 9th. He allowed a walk, groundout, strikeout, and then got the final groundout to end the game — but Gleyber Torres booted it — which drew Ire from Yankee fans on Twitter — as before the game beat report Bryan Hoch revealed Gleyber did not like a possible switch to 3rd base with the arrival of Chisholm, saying he was a 2nd baseman.

Caleb then got Duran to ground the ball to 2nd, and this one 2nd baseman Gleyber Torres fielded for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401570059

 

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