Rodon Deserved Better. Boston 6 NY 0

August 30, 2026 paperbacklou 2026 0
Adley Rutschman safe at home in 5th on passed ball by catcher Ali Sanchez. An error by Amed Rosario earlier in the inning caused Rutschman to still be on the bases in the first place. The inning should have been long over.

Carlos Rodon pitched well, but the Yankees played poor defense behind him in the 5th inning — resulting in a run and lots of extra pitches that forced him from the game — and didn’t score any runs in a 6-0 Boston win at Yankee Stadium on a gorgeous, top-10-best-days-of-year Saturday afternoon — the 1st game of a day-night doubleheader.

Rodon ended up with 4.2 innings of 3-hit, 2-run ball, striking out 5 and walking 1 — but got the loss to go 4-3 3.20.

Yerry de los Santos, Justin Topa, and Ryan Yarbrough came in to pitch shutout ball and keep the game 2-0 Boston to the 9th — but in the 9th Yarbrough imploded, allowing 4 runs to put the game out of reach.

25-year-old lefty Jake Bennett shut the Yanks out on 3 hits through 6 innings, and the Boston bullpen did the rest. Bennett is now 9-6 3.27.

“Used his sinker and his 4-seam well in tandem,” said manager Aaron Boone about Red Sox starter Jake Bennett. “And then was able to throw his slider and sweeper in there; mix in the changeup with some of our righties, just off of our barrel; we just didn’t do a good enough job today against him.”

NY falls to 76-59, 5 games back of Tampa; Boston improves to 74-61, 2 games back of NY and 7.5 behind Tampa — with the 2nd game of the day-night doubleheader on deck.

1. Rodon Pitched Great; Defense Deserts Him in 5th

Carlos Rodon allowed a 2-out HR to Wilyer Abreu in the 2st inning, but then shut down the Red Sox — retiring 11 in a row in pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd thru 4th innings.

So it was a 1-0 game when Adley Rutschman lined a 1-out single to right in the 5th. Next batter Andruw Monasterio hit a liner to 2nd base, where Amed Rosario — giving Jazz Chisholm Jr. the afternoon off in the day-night doubleheader — made the catch then tried to double Rutschman off 1st — but the ball got stuck in his glove and he double clutched then rushed a throw that Paul Goldschmidt couldn’t handle.

Instead of the inning being over, Rutschman was on 2nd with 2 outs. Next batter Nick Sogard hit a grounder to 3rd that Jose Caballero made the backhanded play on — but his throw was wide of 1st so there were runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs.

And then while pitching to leftfielder Eli White, a Rodon pitch bounced off the glove of catcher Ali Sanchez for a passed ball and Rutschman scored from 3rd for a 2-0 Boston lead.

All the extra pitches that Rodon had to make in the inning got to him — he then walked White and hit Jones with a pitch to load the bases and was relieved by Yerry de los Santos, who got the final out.

2. Bennett Pitched Great; Rosario Thrown Out at Home in 4th

Meanwhile Jake Bennett was dueling Rodon with a 1-hit shutout into the 4th, when with 1 out, Amed Rosario reached base on a throwing error by 3rd baseman Durbin.

Heliot Ramos then hit a fly into the sun in center that Ceddanne Rafaela had trouble seeing — it went for a double — but Boston 2nd baseman Nick Sogard made a Perfect relay throw home to nab Rosario trying to score — keeping the game at 1-0 Boston.

Bennett allowed a 2-out single to Spencer Jones in the 5th, and pitched a 1-2-3 shutout 6th before handing a 2-0 lead to the bullpen.

3. Topa Came and Left

After de los Santos left the bases loaded by getting the final out of the 5th, Justin Topa pitched the 6th and worked around consecutive 2-out singles to pitch a shutout inning.

Topa is a 35-year-old, 6’4 righty and journeyman reliever who came up with Milwaukee, and has pitched for Seattle and most notably Minnesota for a few years. He was released by the Twins in May of this season, and then picked up and released by Toronto in July and Kansas City in August.

The Yanks signed him on Tuesday, and released him after the game to make room on the roster for Max Fried, returning from injury.

Justin Topa’s career as a Yankee: 1 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1K, 0.00 ERA and a trivia question answer years from now. He kept the game 2-0 and the Yanks within reach in a big game against the Red Sox.

4. Yarbrough Great Until Imploding in 9th

Ryan Yarbrough pitched a 1-2-3 shutout 7th and 8th — so the game went to the 9th with NY still down 2-0.

But in the top of the 9th, Yarbrough imploded, allowing a leadoff walk to Caleb Durbin, infield single to Rutschman, 2-RBI single to Monasterio, and RBI double to Sogard to make it a 5-0 game.

Yarbrough finally got an out — striking out Eli White — but then walked Jahmai Jones and allowed an RBI single to Rafaela and NY was down 6-0.

5. Boston Bullpen Shuts NY Down

Boston’s bullpen shut the Yanks down:

  • 35-year-old, 6’8 righty Tyron Guerrero pitched a shutout 7th to keep the score 2-0 Boston. He allowed a 1-out single to Cody Bellinger but then getting a line out and a  groundout.
  • 30-year-old, 6’5 righty and former Yankee Garrett Whitlock pitched a 1-2-3 shutout 8th.
  • 29-year-old 6’1 lefty Jovani Moran pitched a 1-2-3 shutout 9th — strikeout, fly out, fly out — for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401874913

 

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