Rodon Throws Down. Judge Homers Again. NY 3 Colorado 0

August 24, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0
Aaron Judge's 49th homer of the year gives Yanks 3-0 lead in 6th.

It’s 1998 all over again — again — as the Yankee starters are back in high gear matching, or one-upping each other as they were earlier in the season.

On this night, Carlos Rodon pitched 6 innings of 4-hit shutout ball to match the 6 innings of 1-hit shutout ball that Gerrit Cole pitched the day before, that matched the 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball that Nestor Cortes pitched the night before that.

Three straight wins for the Yankees and another homerun by Aaron Judge — his 4th straight game of at least 1 homer and 49th homer of the season — to provide an insurance run in the 6th after a Giancarlo Stanton blast had put NY up 1-0 in the 4th.

And the Yankee bullpen was spotless again — Luke Weaver, Jake Cousins, and Clay Holmes pitching 3 innings of no-hit, shutout ball.

On a beautiful Friday night in the Bronx; temps in the low 70’s.

“Working that breaking ball on the outer half, fastball command was great as well, but I think really his slider — he was able to put his slider in to get himself out of some jams a couple of times,” said Aaron Judge afterwards about Rodon. “When you’re trying to protect against 97 or 98 and a guy drops a nasty slider it makes for a long, long day.”

NY improves to 76-53, and remain 1.5 ahead of Baltimore for 1st place in the East. Colorado drops to 47-82.

1. Rodon Great

Carlos Rodon was dominant again — rebounding from his poor start against Detroit last week, which came after 4 excellent starts before that. He improves his record to 14-8 4.16 and has an outside shot at 20 wins.

Rodon retired the first 6 batters of the game before getting into some trouble in the 3rd inning — allowing a leadoff single, striking out 2, then allowing a double to shortstop Ezequiel Tovar to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. But he struck out 1st baseman Brendan Rodgers with a nasty slider on a 3-2 count to get out of the inning.


Rodon allowed a 2-out single in the 4th but got the final out, then in the 5th — up 2-0 — allowed a 1-out single, but then struck out Aaron Schunk with more nasty sliders. He allowed a 2-out walk to Tovar, but fed Rodgers an assortment of nasty sliders and 96-MPH heaters — and got him to groundout on a 2-2 slider.

Rodon pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th — more sliders and changeups and heaters with an occasional curveball — and left after 6 innings and 102 pitches, up 3-0. His line: 6 IP, 4 hits, 5 K’s, 1 walk.

2. Big G Blast Puts Yanks Up 1-0 in 4th

Colorado started 31-year-old righthander Kyle Freeland, who came in with a 3-5 5.97 record — but pitched well, especially the first 3 innings when he shut the Yankees out.

But like the prior game, the Yanks got to the starter the 2nd time around — in the 4th inning. After Aaron Judge was robbed on a leaping catch of a line drive down 3rd by Ryan McMahon, Giancarlo Stanton stepped up and ripped a 384-foot shot to right center for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

3. Volpe Scores Run in 5th

The Yanks got to Freeland again in the bottom of the 5th — Anthony Volpe with a 1-0ut single, Alex Verdugo working a walk, and then after Ben Rice grounded out to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs — a ground ball by Gleyber Torres to 3rd base was booted by McMahon — Volpe scored to make it 2-0 Yanks.

4. Judge Insurance HR in 6th

And then if you go to a Yankee game these days, you see an Aaron Judge homerun. Judge didn’t disappoint — ripping a 388-foot homer to left to lead off the 6th against Freeland, and give NY an important insurance run and 3-0 lead. It was his 49th homer of the year putting him on a pace for 61.

5. Bullpen Brilliant

And then the Yankee bullpen came in and was absolutely brilliant.

Luke Weaver pitched a shutout 7th, allowing just a 2-out walk but getting a groundout to end the inning.

NFL star Kirk Cousins’ cousin Jake Cousins pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, striking out 2. Cousins has quietly moved into the setup spot behind Clay Holmes.

Holmes Rollercoaster a Relatively Quiet Ride

And then Clay Holmes came in for the 9th in a 3-0 game, and promptly walked the first batter McMahon and here we go again. Holmes then threw a ball to the next batter, Michael Toglia, before throwing 2 strikes and getting him to fly out.

Holmes then went 3-2 to Jacob Stallings before striking him out looking on a 96-MPH sinker.

Holmes then got Greg Jones to line out to Aaron Judge in center for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401570393

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