Following the Yankees' 4-3 win over the Red Sox in Game 2 of the Wild Card series on Wednesday, manager Aaron Boone and the players spoke about the pivotal game that saved their season…
Carlos Rodón lobbies to stay in
Rodón took the mound Wednesday, hoping to save the Yankees' season. While he didn't give New York the outing Max Fried did the night before, Rodón was solid, giving the Yankees six innings but it could have been shorter.
The southpaw was strong early but labored in the middle innings. In the sixth, after giving up the tying home run to Trevor Story, Rodón walked Alex Bregman, which brought out Boone from the dugout.
The Yankees skipper didn't immediately call for Fernando Cruz, who was warming up, but instead spoke to his veteran starter. After a back-and-forth, Boone allowed Rodon to try and get out of the inning. At fewer than 80 pitches up to that point, Rodón felt that he had more to give.
"Playing under Boone for three years now, I get a sense of the demeanor when he walks out," Rodón said. "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.
"So I hit him straight with it. I was like, 'All right, here's my shot. I got to be pretty up front with it.' So I said, 'I am staying in.' It worked out, obviously, the big double play there. It was a great turn. You know, Jazz [Chisholm Jr.] gets it out quick and [Anthony] Volpe with a strong throw. So it was good."
Rodón rewarded his manager by getting Romy Gonzalez to pop out and Carlos Narvaez to ground into the aforementioned an inning-ending double play to get him through the sixth.
That effort allowed Rodón to start the seventh, but after walking Nate Eaton and hitting Jarren Duran with a pitch — and a wild pitch thrown in — Boone saw enough and pulled his starter.
Rodón went six-plus innings, allowing three runs on four hits, three walks, while striking out six.
"Definitely a battle. They strung some good at-bats together, but defensively, we had some great turns," Rodón said of his outing. "Cruz picked me up there in the seventh. I think we played a pretty complete ball game tonight. The boys swung it late, and we ran the bases pretty well. Played some good baseball. Got out of there with a win, so looking forward to tomorrow."
Carlos Rodón stays in and gets the inning-ending double play to finish the 6th pic.twitter.com/qaoU1bihw4
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Yankees bullpen bounces back
The Yankees' relievers had a tough Game 1. Luke Weaver gave up the go-ahead runs in relief of Fried and David Bednar allowed a crucial insurance run in the Red Sox's win on Tuesday.
Wednesday was a different story.
Cruz worked out of a bases-loaded jam in relief of Rodon in the seventh while Devin Williams and Bednar locked down the eighth and ninth innings to force a Game 3. That seventh was especially impressive, getting the first two outs on a failed bunt by Ceddanne Rafaela and a fly out by Nick Sogard, Masataka Yoshida hit an infield single that Chisholm stopped from going into the outfield. If the second baseman didn't, the Red Sox would have taken the lead, something that Cruz acknowledged when he said that Chisholm saved them the game.
But Cruz's night was almost done after that, but Boone said he was going to give Cruz one more batter to try and get out of it, and he got Story to fly out to end the threat.
"Felt like he had it under control," Boone said. "I was giving him one more hitter there. Felt like with Story was OK, and then I had Devin going in case we did get to Bregman there.
"But felt like his stuff was good, knew he wanted it and felt like he could finish it off. Story put a good swing on it. We were fortunate there. Long fly ball. Felt good about him being in there."
And then Williams came in and pitched a clean eighth, erasing a leadoff single with an inning-ending double play that was assisted by Volpe on the high throw from Williams.
The Yankees skipper praised Williams' stuff and ability after an up-and-down first season in the Bronx when asked about it after the win.
"It was never that far off, frankly. The stuff was never not there," Boone said. "You know, he had a couple of loud outings and where the ball didn't really bounce his way. A couple of those outings where it blew up on him, it's a squibber, it's this, before it got away.
"He was never that far off at any point when he was struggling. And then I think he just started to stack outings. First time in the middle of the season before he hit a rough patch again, and then now, the final month plus, he has just stacked a lot of good outings and just pitching with a lot of confidence, but getting in the zone more and having a presence with both pitches. So he is not real predictable because he's using his fastball enough, and obviously the changeup."
That's back-to-back clean innings for Williams in this series. And now that he hasn't allowed a run since Sept. 3, Williams may be peaking at the right time for the Yankees.
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