Carlos Rodon Stunk Again and Yankees Missed Chance for Sweep of Tigers

The Yankees won their third consecutive series by taking two of three from the Tigers, and the quest to finish above .500 for the 31st straight year is alive as they’re 70-70 with 22 games left in the season. However, that’s still seven games out of the third wild-card spot. Let’s get to it.

Carlos Rodon sure pissed on the parade, didn’t he? And to his credit, that’s exactly the way he described his miserable performance as the Yankees failed to complete a sweep of the Tigers Thursday night.

“We were on a roll with five straight wins,” Rodon said. “Just trying to put the next one up, showed up and pissed the bed and was not good. I’m not gonna make any excuses for performance tonight. I just wasn’t good and it’s time to be better. Little all over the place. They barreled a lot of balls and I just got my ass whooped. That was pretty much it.”

Yep, that was it. I do appreciate that he owns it whenever he sucks. Sadly, he’s had to own it too frequently.

As Rodon said, a season-high five-game winning streak - which began the night Jasson Dominguez made his MLB debut in Houston - and the positive vibes that came with that came crashing to an end because Rodon gave the Yankees no chance to extend it. It was the worst of his 10 Yankee starts, and man oh man did the Yankee Stadium crowd let him have it.

It just continued a forgettable season for the left-hander who was brought in to solidify the starting rotation and has pretty much done the opposite as his ERA soared to 6.60. It’s hard to recall a worse debut season for a mega-contract Yankees free agent signing than the nightmare Rodon has put us through this season. He missed the first three months of the season with two separate injuries, then sat out two-plus weeks in August due to another injury, and when he has been able to take the mound, rarely has it been contract-worthy.

He does not have one great start. There were four that I would consider decent and now six veritable shit shows, none worse than the finale against the Tigers when he gave up a season-high seven earned runs to a team that ranks 29th in MLB in runs scored and reached double figures in a game for just the fourth time this year.

Right now, this sure looks like yet another highly questionable decision made by Brian Cashman who handed out a six-year, $162 million contract to a 30-year-old with a long history of injury troubles.

Rodon is limping to the end of his ninth MLB season, and four of those were ruined by injuries including his first in pinstripes. Only once in his career has he made at least 30 starts, and unfortunately that came last year for San Francisco when the Yankees were paying attention. He made 31 starts, earned a career-high 14 victories and pitched to a 2.88 ERA.

For a Yankees team that was desperate for rotation help, Cashman and his scouts bit hard on Rodon’s 2022 season and decided that giving him $162 million would be worth it. So if you do the math, the Yankees completely wasted a cool $27 million on this guy in 2023.

Look, he started the season behind the 8-ball because of the injuries that knocked him out in the spring, so the Yankees have to hope that this was the worst of Rodon and that he can come back in 2024 and be the guy they thought he would be.

“He has just not been able to get that good rhythm going where he’s gotten in that great groove that we think is still in there,” Aaron Boone said. “I think it’s absolutely in there. We’ve just got to hopefully finish strong this month and put ourselves in a position to springboard into next year strongly with his stuff.”

I have my doubts.

Here are my observations on the three games against the Tigers.

Sept. 5: Yankees 5, Tigers 1

➤ There was much excitement about the Yankee Stadium debut of Dominguez and the rookie delivered a hit for the fourth game in a row, a double in the eighth. That came after Aaron Judge walked, and it was followed by Gleyber Torres’ double down the line in left and both runners scored easily to blow the game open at 5-1.

➤ DJ LeMahieu continued his post trade deadline resurgence with another leadoff homer in the first, and then Giancarlo Stanton broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth with his 400th career home run, a two-run laser to left field that set up Gerrit Cole for his 13th victory.

➤ Otherwise it was a pretty ho-hum night as Cole didn’t have his best stuff, but it didn’t matter against the anemic Tigers. He needed 104 pitches to get through six innings and he gave up eight hits, but only two mattered - Kerry Carpenter tripled in the sixth and scored two pitches later on Miguel Cabrera’s single. The Tigers had two men on base in the first and fifth innings but Cole got Cabrera to ground out in the first, and then retired Zach McKinstry and Spencer Torkelson in the fifth.

➤ From there, the bullpen continued its recent roll as Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loaisiga and Clay Holmes each pitched a scoreless inning with the only baserunner being Javier Baez who singled with two out in the ninth off Holmes.

➤ Unfortunately, the bullpen took another health hit as it was announced that Keynan Middleton went on the injured list with a shoulder problem so he’ll be done for the season. Matt Krook was called up to take his place. This after Ian Hamilton went on the IL Sunday with a sore groin and Greg Weissert was recalled. The season may be lost, but the injuries just keep on piling up.

BOX SCORE

Sept. 6: Yankees 4, Tigers 3

➤ The stat nerds were working overtime in this one as someone dug through the computer database - I assume of the truly awesome site baseball-reference.com - plugged in the numbers and came up with this: Domínguez became the first player in MLB history to get at least one hit, score one run, and have his team win the game in his first five career games. He’s also the youngest player since at least 1901 with at least three homers and seven hits in his first five games. Dominguez had his first three-hit game which included his first Yankee Stadium homer in the third, and then singles in the fourth and sixth. Yeah, the kid has been fun to watch and he has undoubtedly rejuvenated a team that was walking dead for two months.

➤ Clarke Schmidt started poorly and finished poorly, but he was outstanding between those two points. He gave up a run on two hits in the first inning, then retired 16 in a row before Torkelson, Matt Vierling and Andy Ibanez all singled in the seventh to cut the Yankees lead to 4-2. Boone went to Wandy Peralta and he gave up a sacrifice fly before ending the inning.

➤ In the eighth, things got hairy as Peralta loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but Weissert came in and struck out Vierling to save the day, and Holmes got the official save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

➤ The Yankees scored in the second when Peraza singled and later came home on a LeMahieu single off reliever Beau Briske. Briske was in the game because starter Matt Manning - who pitched very well last week against the Yankees in the only game the Tigers won in that four-game series - was knocked out in the first when he took a Stanton liner off his foot.

➤ Dominguez led off the third with his homer, and after walks to Torres and Stanton, Peraza hit an RBI double that made it 3-1. In the fourth, it became 4-1 when Judge doubled and Dominguez and Torres singled.

➤ The 1-thru-4 hitters, LeMahieu, Judge, Dominguez and Torres, went a combined 8-for-15 with three runs and three RBI while Peraza had three hits at the bottom of the order. Since breaking an 0-for-21 slump which dropped his average to .129, Peraza has gone 8-for-19 and is up to .183 for the season. The Yankees really need him to be one of their core pieces starting next year and this is providing some hope.

BOX SCORE

Sept. 7: Tigers 10, Yankees 3

➤ Two batters into the game it was 2-0 as Rodon gave up a leadoff double to Vierling and a two-run homer to Torkelson and the Yankees never had a chance to win the game and complete the sweep. Rodon gave up two more runs on a Vierling RBI double and a sacrifice fly in the third, and then the Tigers put up four in the fourth.

➤ That inning began when Carpenter hit a grounder to LeMahieu at first and Rodon brain-farted and didn’t get over in time to cover the bag and it went downhill from there. Tyler Nevin had an RBI double, Vierling an RBI single, and after Rodon was yanked and serenaded by loud boos all the way to the dugout, Randy Vasquez served up a two-run homer to Torkelson to make it 8-1.

➤ The Yankees offense came on a solo homer by Torres in the second and a two-run double by Everson Pereira in the fourth. Torres has been great lately. In his last 11 games he’s slashing .350/.447/.825 with an OPS of 1.272 with five homers and 10 RBI.

➤ As for Dominguez, he had his first hitless game as a major leaguer, 0-for-3 with a walk. After he struck out looking in the third on a ball that was clearly off the plate, Anthony Rizzo started chirping at home plate umpire Alan Porter who proved pretty thin-skinned and threw Rizzo out of a game that he wasn’t playing in.

➤ Porter redeemed himself with a cool moment in the top of the ninth when soon-to-be-retired Miguel Cabrera stepped up to the plate for the final Yankee Stadium at bat of his career. Porter stepped in front of the plate before Matt Krook threw the first pitch so that what was left of the crowd could give Cabrera an ovation.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ Sept. 5, 2007: Although no one knew it at the time, this turned out to be the final game that Bob Sheppard appeared as the PA announcer at Yankee Stadium. Following a 10-2 blowout of the Mariners, the Yankees left for a nine-game road trip and while they were away, the 96-year-old Sheppard came down with a bronchial infection, causing him to miss the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.

He was not able to return for the 2008 season, though his voice continued to be heard because Derek Jeter insisted on a recording of Sheppard’s introduction for his at bats. Sheppard was unable to work the final game at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 21, 2008, but he did do a recording of the Yankees lineup that night which was played at the stadium. Sheppard, whose first game as the PA announcer was Mickey Mantle’s MLB debut in 1951, passed away in 2010 at the age of 99.

Sheppard’s last game was not without note. In the seventh inning, Alex Rodriguez - who almost didn’t play because of a sore ankle - became just the fourth player in Yankees history to homer twice in the same inning.

“I would say about 60 (percent),” A-Rod said of his condition. “I guarantee that if it was April or May, I probably would have taken a day (off), no question. But every game is so important.”

The Yankees, who increased their lead in the AL wild-card race over the Mariners to three games, were down 2-1 and A-Rod led off the seventh inning with a homer off Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn, and about a half hour later A-Rod capped an eight-run explosion with a two-run shot off Brandon Morrow. Jeter contributed a two-run double to the cause.

With 48 homers and 26 at home after this game, A-Rod equaled the franchise records for right-handed hitters which he set in 2005. A few days later he became the first Yankee to reach 50 homers since Mantle and Roger Maris did it in 1961. By season’s end, easily his best in New York, A-Rod would pass Mel Ott, Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews to get to 16th on the all-time MLB homer list as he led the majors with 54 homers, 156 RBI, a 1.067 OPS and won the AL MVP.

Milwaukee arrives Friday night for a three-game set and the Brewers’ lead in the NL Central is down to two games over the charging Cubs. The Brewers won nine games in a row from Aug. 18-28 including the first game of a series against the Cubs to extend their lead to five games. But they dropped the last two at Wrigley and since then they’ve gone 3-5 so at 77-62, they’re now in a real dogfight to win the division.

Outfielder Christian Yelich is having a nice bounce-back season, not up to his 2018 NL MVP level but much better than his last three years as he’s slashing .274/.363/.436 with an OPS of .799. He has 17 homers and a team-high 70 RBI. Shortstop Willy Adames, a former Ray who had plenty of big games against the Yankees, leads the team with 23 homers. And catcher William Contreras leads with a .279 average and also has 66 RBI.

What the Brewers do best is pitch. Their team ERA is 3.96, ninth-best in MLB. The Yankees are fortunate that they’re missing ace Brandon Woodruff (2.30 ERA) plus Freddy Peralta (3.89). In the bullpen, closer Devin Williams is one of the best in the game with 32 saves, a 1.74 ERA and a 0.968 WHIP with 76 strikeouts in 51.2 innings.

The pitching matchups look like this: Friday at 7:05 p.m. on YES it’s Luis Severino (6.75 ERA) against Colin Rea (5.07); Saturday at 2:05 p.m. on YES it’s Michael King (2.88) against Wade Miley (3.33); and Sunday at 1:35 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (2.90) against Corbin Burnes (3.63).