HOUSTON — Carlos Rodón pitched like a crossing guard on Friday night, allowing plenty of traffic to pass before stopping it short when needed in a 7-1 Yankees win.
There’s no denying the southpaw labored in his first start of 2024, as evidenced by the five hits, three walks and two sweat-soaked jerseys he totaled against the Astros. Yet, Rodón held Houston to one run over 4.1 innings and 87 pitches.
The biggest pitch of the night came in the fourth inning, when Rodón used an elevated cutter to fan Yordan Alvarez with two outs and two runners on. Excited by his own escape act, the pitcher pumped his arms as he descended the mound.
Carlos Rodón gets a HUGE strikeout on Yordan Alvarez pic.twitter.com/148pHcEfdR
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 30, 2024
The one run off Rodón came in the first inning, when a diving Alex Verdugo couldn’t come up with an RBI single off the bat of Alex Bregman. From there, Rodón primarily used a three-pitch mix to work out of trouble, throwing the new cutter alongside his typical fastball-slider combo.
Rodón played with five pitches all spring, mixing in curveballs and changeups. He threw just one changeup and zero curves on Friday. Meanwhile, his fastball maxed out at 98.3 mph.
While Rodón fought in his first outing since a disastrous debut season in pinstripes, Astros starter Cristian Javier maintained his Yankee killer reputation.
The righty blanked the Bombers for six innings, adding a strikeout for every frame. The Yankees picked up one walk and four hits off Javier. Two of the knocks came courtesy of Juan Soto, who scared his new fans with a trainer’s visit in the third. However, Soto remained in the game and finished with three hits, including a double off the left field wall.
The other two hits off Javier were delivered by Oswaldo Cabrera. After a scorching end to spring training and an Opening Day homer, the third baseman ended up with a career-high four hits in the game.
Cabrera’s seventh-inning single tied the contest.
“He’s worked his butt off. Real consistent at-bats probably the last two, two and a half weeks of spring training, and then carried it into yesterday,” Aaron Boone said before Friday’s game. “A good kid that’s worked his butt off, and he’s seeing some of the fruits of the work he’s put in.”
Oswaldo Cabrera ties it up in the 7th 😤pic.twitter.com/rARu9sXUjY
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 30, 2024
Soto followed Cabrera’s single with a bases-loaded walk, which gave the Yankees a late lead.
“He’s the epitome of controlling the strike zone,” Boone said after Soto drew two walks on Opening Day.
The Yankees scored two additional runs on two straight Astros errors in the eighth. Cabrera then added two more ribbies with a single up the middle before Giancarlo Stanton smoked a ninth-inning solo shot for his first homer of the season.
At that point, a fairly loud “Let’s go Yankees” chant broke out at Minute Maid Park.
With two wins out of the way, Marcus Stroman will make his first official Yankees start on Saturday.
The right-hander, a Long Island native, was the only significant addition to the Yankees’ rotation over the offseason. Stroman signed a two-year, $37 million deal that came with an innings-based vesting option for a third season.
Now in his 10th season, Stroman was an All-Star but battled a hip injury while recording a 3.95 ERA for the Cubs last year.
Hunter Brown is scheduled to start for the Astros. He logged 155.2 innings as a rookie last year, but the righty ended up with a 5.09 ERA.
The Yankees may have to face Brown without Gleyber Torres, who pulled himself from Friday’s game a little while after taking a pitch to his right hand.
