MOOSIC, Pa. — It wasn’t about the results. What mattered was how Carlos Rodón felt after making a rehab start Saturday night for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders against the Rochester Red Wings at PNC Field.
Since he felt good, the New York Yankees’ left-hander was satisfied with the outing despite allowing three runs and three hits — including a home run — in 2.2 innings.
“I’m happy with how I feel healthwise,” Rodón said. “Barring the results, I just feel good about how I came out of
the game.
“It was good to get back on the mound and compete. The goal was to get out there and get 48 pitches in. So I’m happy with how I feel.”
RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said that Rodón may not have had his best stuff, but did show some good glimpses.
“You’re not going to see his best in the process of building up to where he wants to be and that’s understandable,” Duncan said. “It’s a journey when you come back from anything and develop a pitch count. But he was attacking the zone, his slider looked good, his fastball looked good.”
On the injured list retroactive to June 30th with left elbow inflammation, Rodón threw 48 pitches Saturday, 29 for strikes. He walked two, struck out four and topped out at 93.8 mph on a pitch to Seaver King in the top of the third inning.
Rodón was fine with his velocity.
“I think it will tick up when I get on the mound at Yankee Stadium,” he said.
“I had a good mix. Obviously, I was working on fastball command mostly. Mixing some sliders and changeups, a couple of sinkers. Just normal work.”
Things got off to an inauspicious start when King whacked Rodón’s third pitch past the 408-foot mark in center field to the grassy area beyond the fence for a home run, giving the Red Wings a quick 1-0 lead.
“It was just a fastball middle down and he put a good swing on it,” Rodón said. “Tip of the cap, that’s good for him.”
He retired the next seven batters after yielding the home run. He got Phillip Glasser and Yohandy Morales on groundouts and Trey Lipscomb on a strikeout to end the first inning. In the top of the second, he threw just nine pitches and got Riley Adams on a flyout, caught Sam Petersen looking at strike three and Cayden Wallace on a groundout.
After whiffing Maxwell Romero Jr. on three pitches to start the top of the third, things soured for Rodón. Leandro Pineda dunked a double inside the right-field foul line. After King walked, Glasser punched a triple into the right-field corner to score both Pineda and King and give Rochester a 3-0 lead on its way to an 8-0 victory.
“Sinkers in, I’m not upset with the pitches,” Rodón said. “I think the exit velo on both of them was pretty low. One was 78, the other was 80-something. Obviously, the results for them were good. If I’m nitpicky, I’m probably a little more down with the sinker. But they were three balls inside. I think I broke one bat.
“I’m not too caught up in the results. There’s more important games to be pitched.”
Morales walked and Lipscomb struck out for the second out of the inning. With the count 1-1 to Adams, Rodón reached his 48-pitch limit and Duncan came out of the RailRiders dugout to get him.
“It’s not like you can say he got shelled. He didn’t,” Duncan said. “The only really well-hit ball was the home run. It was right into the guy’s bat path.
“It was good. He got his work in, got what he needed to get done. Just keep moving forward. Looking forward to him getting healthy and helping that big-league team.”
When that is remains uncertain. Rodón doesn’t know what his next step is. It could be another rehab start. He could also rejoin the Yankees and “piggyback” in starts with another pitcher—-like Ryan Weathers or Will Warren—while he builds up his pitch count.
“It’s beyond my control,” Rodón said. “Just looking forward to getting back on the mound whether it’s here or Double-A, maybe in the big leagues I don’t know. I’m assuming it will be one more rehab start, but I’m not sure. It’s not up to me.
“It might be a pitch-count thing. Obviously I need to get the pitch count up. If it’s another rehab start, we’ll work on a couple more things and I’ll be happy with it.”
Whatever the case, Rodón is eager to get back to pitching for the Yankees.
“It’s pretty frustrating having to be in this situation once again, not being able to compete and trying to help the team win,” he said. “We’ve struggled as of late, but I feel like we’ve played some pretty good baseball considering a lot of close games — 2-1, 2-0 — that we’ve had to learn how to win. I think that will make us better down the stretch.”
In his second game with the RailRiders since being sent down by the Yankees, Anthony Volpe started at second base Saturday night. It was just the third time he played the position in the minors and the first since 2021 when he did it twice: once with Low-A Tampa and once with High-A Hudson Valley.
With a runner on first in the top of the eighth inning, Volpe made a nice play going to his right to field a ball hit by Glasser. He shoveled it with his glove to shortstop Oswaldo Cabrera for the force at second. Cabrera then threw to first to complete the 4-6-3 double play.
Volpe finished with three assists and two putouts, including applying the tag when left fielder Jasson Domínguez threw out Glasser trying to stretch a single into a double leading off the top of the fifth.
“He’s so athletic and quick,” Duncan said of Volpe. “He can be good anywhere. Throw him anywhere and I expect him to be good, no matter what the position is.”
Offensively, Volpe was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. He ripped a two-out double into the left-field corner in the third inning, but unfortunately Tyler Hardman was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first base.
One night earlier, in his first game back with the RailRiders, Volpe was 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. However, the hit was a two-run home run.
