CARLOS RODON. That’s the Tweet. NY 2 Tampa 0

September 23, 2026 paperbacklou 2026 0
Carlos Rodon pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, striking out 8 and walking 0 to get the win. He goes to 7-3 2.67.

Carlos Rodon pitched 8 innings of 3-hit, shutout baseball — striking out 8 and walking 0 — to command the Yanks to a 2-0 win over Tampa on a 65-degree mostly cloudy Tuesday afternoon at Yankee Stadium — the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Cody Bellinger supplied the offense with a 2-run HR, and David Bednar supplied another 1-2-3 non-agita save.

“He was awesome,” said manager Aaron Boone about Rodon through a sniffly nose due to a head cold. “Strike throwing was great; Fastball in a really good place; really good profile on the heater too. Velo when he really needed it. And then the secondary was good — the slider and the changeup. And obviously very pitch efficient. Some really good defense behind him. Just a really solid, quick win.”

NY wins the 1st game of a 4-game set against Tampa, in which they have to win all 4 games to stay in contention for 1st place in the East. The Yanks improve to 90-66 and pull to 5 games back of Tampa, which is 95-61. The Yanks are 6 ahead of the Red Sox with 6 games to play.

1. Rodon DOMINATES

It was like Carlos Rodon play catch with Ali Sanchez. That’s how Dave Sims described it on the radio afterwards. Carlos Rodon absolutely DOMINATED — his HARD, 94-MPH four-seam fastball, vicious 86-MPH slider, and 84-MPM changeup just putting people away all day.

As the game continued he threw in some 94-MPH sinkers too, and ticked up his HARD four-seam fastball to 95 MPH.

It is hard to describe Rodon’s fastball other than HARD. It doesn’t ring up the highest velocity like the guys throwing 100 MPH — but seems to come in with a HARD slightly downward motion and rotation that just seems hard for the batters to hit.

And Rodon’s slider is what they call vicious.

Rodon pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st before allowing a 1-out single to Chandler Simpson in the 2nd — then got Jonny DeLuca to hit a changeup into a doubleplay to end the inning.

Rodon then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th before allowing a leadoff single to Victor Mesa Jr. in the 6th. He then struck out former Yank Jorge Mateo and got Richie Palacios to hit a line drive to Cody Bellinger in left — who promptly threw out Mesa who had taken too big a lead off the bag.

Rodon allowed a 1-out single in the 7th, and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th — and in process struck out his 1,500th man of his career. He absolutely dominated all the way and left with a 2-0 lead. He wins to go 7-3 2.67.

2. Bellinger 2-Run HR in 4th Puts NY Up 2-0

The Rays started 35-year-old Nick Martinez who is having a bang-up year for them, coming in with a 15-4 2.94 record and leaving with a 15-5 2.94 record (his ERA stayed the same) after the loss.

Martinez pitched great, using his combination of 93-MPH fastball, 92-MPH cutter, and offspeed pitches to keep the Yanks off balance. He pitched 6 innings of 5-hit ball, striking out 7 and walking 1.

But in the 4th, Ben Rice led off with a double to right, and next batter Cody Bellinger hit a first-pitch sinker for a 382-foot HR to right and 2-0 Yankee lead.

Besides Rice and Bellinger, the only other Yankees to get hits in the game were Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr., and Jose Caballero, who all went 1-3.

3. Bednar the Non-Agita Save

6’6 righty Ty Johnson relieved Nick Martinez and pitched a shutout 7th and 8th — so the game went to the 9th with NY up 2-0.

And Bednar, as usual, got a non-agita save — groundout, fly out, groundout for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

It was announced before the game that Aaron Judge took a PPP shot for his injured calf, and would miss the Wild Card playoff series if the Yanks are involved with one.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401873648

 

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