Rodon & Bullpen Buckle Down. Volpe & Goldy Defend. NY 1 Tampa 0

April 19, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0

Carlos Rodon allowed the first 2 batters of the game to get on with a walk and a single — then buckled down, striking out the next 3 batters in the 1st and throwing 6 shutout innings of 2-hit baseball, striking out 9. The Yankee bullpen backed him up with 3 shutout innings as NY beat Tampa 1-0 on a Friday night at George M. Steinbrenner field in Tampa.

And the Yankee defense backed all the pitchers with amazing plays all night — especially by Anthony Volpe and Paul Goldschmidt. Volpe made several spectacular plays at shortstop, helped by great stretches at 1st by Goldschmidt, then Goldschmidt started a game-saving rundown play in the 5th, and Volpe capped it off with an amazing cutoff throw from the outfield to just nail Jonathan Aranda at 3rd base in his bid for a leadoff triple in the 7th.

The lone run in the game was driven in by Trent Grisham on a 2-out, RBI single in the 2nd inning.

The Yanks got only 5 hits against Drew Rasmussen and the Tampa pen; the Rays only got 3 hits against the Yanks.

“That 1st inning, especially after what we went through last night with the pen, you’re looking up there he’s got 20 pitches and hasn’t gotten an out,” said manager Aaron Boone about Rodon. “Just really buckled down with 3 straight strikeouts, and then took it from there to give us 6 strong innings; was big.”

“I thought it was a little bit of a grind for him tonite,” added Boone. “I thought the last 2 starts were actually better. He kind of grinded his way; stuff was good. But I just liked the way he kept moving; next pitch; next pitch. There were struggles in there; command issues. But he was able to make a big pitch all night long.”

NY improves to 13-7, a 105-win pace. The Yanks have the best record in the American League and are a game ahead of Toronto in the AL East. Tampa falls to 8-12.

1. Rodon Buckles Down

Carlos Rodon has pitched well so far this year, but has been bitten by the home run ball, including his last start when he had a 3-0 lead ruined by coughing up 2 homers to Jung Hoo Lee.

Before the game, Aaron Boone said that he thought Rodon was pitching so well, he looked like he was about to go on a string of 5 or 6 straight wins.

Well put the first one in the books — although on this night he struggled more than the prior 2 starts.

Rodon walked Yandy Diaz to start the game, then allowed a single to Junior Caminero, and went 3-2 in a 9-pitch at bat to Curtis Mead. He was at 20 pitches and there was nobody out and 2 on in the 1st.

But Rodon buckled down, striking out Mead looking on an 85-MPH changeup, then striking out leftfielder Christopher Morel and Danny Jansen swinging.

Rodon then started mowing down the Rays. He looked like a Pirate, with newly-allowed-by-Yankees trimmed beard and no-nonsense demeaner, and had his fastball crackling at 98-MPH, making his off-speed pitches deadly.

“Best part of tonight is seeing the heat kick in and him getting that 98mph back. Minus the sweat,” tweeted his wife Ashley — who as always tweeted encouragement (to him and other Yanks) and observations as the night went on.

The sweat Ashley Rodon was referring to was causing Carlos’s pitches to sometimes slip away from his fingers, resulting in a few pitches that went WAY out of the strike zone and hit the backstop behind home plate.

But they didn’t do any harm and maybe helped intimidate the hitters.

Rodon’s line: 6 IP, 2 hits, 9 K’s, 4 walks in 102 pitches. He wins to go 2-3 4.34.

2. Volpe and Goldschmidt Defense

Rodon was helped by the Yankee defense — including a number of tremendous plays by Anthony Volpe at shortstop. Volpe, who won a Gold Glove as a rookie the year before last, is playing on another level this year.

Bottom of the 3rd

With 2 outs in the bottom of the 3rd, Volpe snared a line shot by Junior Caminero and threw to 1st, where Gold Glover Paul Goldschmidt finished the play with a great catch and tag of the runner.

Bottom of the 4th

Volpe and Goldschmidt did it again to get the 1st out of the bottom of the 4th.

Bottom of the 5th — Goldy’s Run Down

Goldschmidt’s tremendous Defense also helped Volpe make two of his amazing plays, and then in the bottom of the 5th, Jose Caballero led off with a double, moved to 3rd on a groundout, and was caught on a rundown between 3rd and home on a grounder to 1st by Taylor Walls. Goldschmidt fielded the grounder then chased the runner back to 3rd with a great fake throw.

Bottom of the 7th — the Relay Throw

And then came the amazing relay throw in the bottom of the 7th, robbing 1st baseman Jonathan Aranda of a leadoff triple in the 1-0 game. Rodon had just been relieved by Mark Leiter Jr. to start the inning — the play saved the win for Rodon.

3. Grisham Gets to Rasmussen

Meanwhile, Drew Rasmussen was also throwing down. He pitched 5.2 innings of 3-hit ball, striking out 7.

The Yanks were lucky to get to Rasmussen in the 2nd inning — when Paul Goldschmidt led off with a single, moved to 2nd on a 1-out walk by J.C. Escarra (after Rasmussen struck out Jazz Chisholm Jr., and then — after Rasmussen struck out Volpe — scored on a 2-out, RBI single to center by Trent Grisham.

4. Leiter Great After the Help from the D

After Aranda was thrown out at 3rd trying for a leadoff triple in the 7th, Mark Leiter Jr. struck out the next 2 batters for a 1-2-3 inning — maintaining the 1-0 Yankee lead.

5. Rice Robbed of HR in 8th

Tampa touche’-ed the Yankee defense in the top of the 8th, when Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a single off reliever Edwin Uceta, and Ben Rice drilled a changeup to right for a homerun that was pulled back in for an out by Jose Caballero.

6. Cruz Great

Fernando Cruz used his FILTHY splitter to pitch a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 8th, striking out 2.

7. Weaver Great

The Yanks threatened in the top of the 9th against Hunter Bigge — just like in the 2nd a single by Goldschmidt and walk by Escarra — but Volpe struck out to end the threat.

The hit by Goldschmidt was his 3rd on the day — amazing considering there were only 8 hits by both teams in the game.

And so it was to the bottom of the 9th and Luke Weaver on the hill for the save. And Weaver was brilliant as usual, striking out Brandon Lowe, striking out leftfielder Christopher Morel, and getting centerfielder Kameron Misner on a pop out to 2nd for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

J.C. Escarra was catching because Austin Wells was out with food poisoning.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was playing despite having just been suspended a game by MLB for protesting a strike call that got him thrown out of the prior game, then tweeting his displeasure during that game. Chisholm will serve the 1-game suspension in an upcoming game.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401695199

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