Carlos Rodón delivered a gritty performance on the mound for the New York Yankees, even if his fielding slipped up a bit during their tense 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the AL wild-card series. The win on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium forces a decisive Game 3 on Thursday, keeping the Yankees’ playoff hopes alive.
Rodón, the left-handed starter, battled through six-plus innings, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks while striking out six batters on 91 pitches. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to hand the ball to a Yankees bullpen that shut down the Red Sox the rest of the way in this nail-biter.
“Definitely a battle,” Rodón said after the game. “They strung some good at-bats together, but defensively we had some great turns.”
The Yankees’ defense stepped up big, making several sharp plays behind their pitchers. But Rodón picked a tough spot for his first error since 2021. In the third inning, with New York leading 2-0, Boston loaded the bases with no outs after a bunt by Nick Sogard. Rodón fielded the ball near the third-base line and threw to first baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., but the toss sailed and forced Chisholm to stretch, letting the ball dribble into foul territory.
Rodón bounced back by striking out Rob Refsnyder with the bases loaded. Still, Trevor Story’s single up the middle scored two runs to tie the game at 2-2.
Rodón found his groove after that, especially crucial since Boston turned to a bullpen game with six relievers. In the sixth, he gave up a home run to Story that tied things again, then walked Alex Bregman on four pitches. Yankees manager Aaron Boone headed to the mound, and reliever Fernando Cruz started warming up. But Boone held off, and Rodón convinced him to stay in.
“Playing under Boone for three years now, I get a sense of the demeanor when he walks out,” Rodón explained. “At times he makes a decision early, he points. But when I saw he crossed the line and didn’t put his arm up, I knew I had a chance at a rebuttal.”
That rebuttal worked: Rodón got Romy Gonzalez to pop out and induced Carlos Narváez to ground into a slick double play started by Ryan McMahon. He even got help later—Cruz escaped a jam in the seventh, and catcher Austin Wells drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the eighth.
The Yankees clung to that slim lead, thanks to strong relief pitching and timely defense in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. “Got out of there with a win, so looking forward to tomorrow,” Rodón added, eyeing that winner-take-all Game 3 in the AL wild-card series.
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