Carlos Rodon had to deal with his slider disappearing in the fourth inning and after a 4-2 loss to Kansas City in the ALDS in The Bronx, the left-hander and his family were forced to deal with online threats.
Rodon’s wife, Ashley, posted screenshots from X posted by anonymous users that mocked the couple’s usage of IVF and wrote unprintable messages about their children.
“People are pretty disgusting at times,’’ Rodon said when the theme of the messages was relayed to him. “But that doesn’t explain Yankee fans. I don’t think that’s who they are. I understand [fans] get frustrated with the game, but my message to fans all around is, ‘We are human as well.’ We’re not always perfect. … Let’s not forget this is just a game and don’t threaten people’s families.”
introduction on Dec. 22, 2022. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post
The ugliness came after Rodon allowed four runs over 3 ²/₃ innings in his first postseason start as a Yankee.
The lefty’s Yankee postseason career seemed to be getting off to an excellent start before he fell apart in the fourth.
He struck out the side in order in the first, needing just 12 pitches, and he punctuated each whiff with an exclamation, spinning and yelling on the mound.
That confidence was soon gone.
In a scene all too familiar to Yankee fans, Rodon saw his stuff disappear quickly, this time in a critical situation, as he allowed four runs in the top of the fourth after the Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third.
Rodon looked dominant in the first two innings, striking out four and retiring six of the first seven batters he faced before pitching around two hits in the third.
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But Salvador Perez led off the fourth with a booming homer to left on a hanging 2-0 slider to tie the game at 1-1 and things only got worse from there.
Yuli Gurriel followed with a single off a slider and moved to second on a wild pitch.
Tommy Pham put Kansas City ahead with a single to right-center off another poor slider and after Rodon was on the verge of ending the inning without more damage with a strikeout of Hunter Renfroe, Rodon was burned again by a single to right off a slider by Garrett Hampson to make it 3-1 and end his night.
Ian Hamilton entered and gave up an RBI single to Garcia for the fourth and final run of the inning.
Rodon regretted the “hittable sliders. I could’ve been better with those pitches. I wanted to be better than that.”
The final result was much different than the early going.
The Yankees hoped the 31-year-old would follow his strong regular season, which he finished with a 2.20 ERA over his last five starts.
Instead, it ended poorly for Rodon, both on and off the field.
“It’s part of doing business,” Rodon said of the threats. “We get paid very well to play a game, but there’s no room for people threatening harmless little kids.”
