For better or worse, Carlos Rodon pitches with full-fledged emotion.
That is the case on a random weeknight game in April or in front of a sleepy crowd on the road.
But the stakes are about to be raised on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, and Rodon plans on leaning into the atmosphere in his first playoff game in pinstripes.
The left-hander will get the ball for Game 2 of the ALDS against the Royals, trying to funnel the energy of a rowdy home crowd into giving the Yankees a chance to take a 2-0 series lead.
“The energy definitely fuels me,” Rodon said Sunday after throwing at Yankee Stadium in preparation for Monday’s start. “I think it’s something that I have to harness and deliver it towards the plate. But I definitely use that. I’m going to try to use that to my advantage for sure.”
Rodon was in the dugout Saturday night for Game 1 and called the energy from the sellout crowd of 48,790 “pretty spectacular.”
Of course, riding that wave of emotions can go both ways, especially in the postseason.
Rodon has only pitched in the playoffs twice in his career — giving up four runs in 2 ²/₃ innings across two games with the White Sox in 2020 and 2021 — but hopes he can benefit from those experiences on Monday.
“I think it’s kind of one of those things where at times you just have to slow it down,” Rodon said. “It can really speed up, especially in big situations.”
Rodon remembered back to his last playoff outing in 2021, Game 4 of the ALDS against the Astros.
He was “amped up” to start a do-or-die game for the White Sox, but the first pitch he threw got tagged for a double by Jose Altuve.
So Rodon stepped behind the mound, looked at the ground and took a breath before retiring the next three batters in order to leave Altuve at third base.
But two innings later, things sped up on him as he hit a batter, walked a pair and then allowed a two-run double that knocked him out of the game.
“I think early on in my career, I’d get pretty flustered,” Rodon said. “Obviously there’s still times that I do. I think that’s just kind of who I am. It’s a fine line of, it can propel me to very high highs and super low lows because it can go both ways. It’s a double-edged sword. I like to stay on the right side of the line where we’re going high, we’re going up.”
The downside of Rodon’s fiery demeanor was on display more often during his first season with the Yankees last year.
It included blowing a kiss to a fan mocking him at Angel Stadium and then, in a disastrous finale at Kauffman Stadium that spiked his season ERA to 6.85 across 14 starts, turning his back on pitching coach Matt Blake during a mound visit.
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But Rodon has spent most of this year on a redemption arc, posting a 3.96 ERA in 32 starts.
It has not all been smooth sailing — he had a six-game stretch heading into the All-Star break in which he accrued a 9.67 ERA and gave up nine home runs across 27 innings — but he was much better before and after that.
Now he will get the chance to build on it with his first playoff start as a Yankee, trying to keep the momentum and the home crowd on his side.
“I think there’s always an intensity to Carlos, any game he’s competing in,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday. “I would expect that to be there. Part of that is also harnessing that and channeling that in all the right kind of ways. So hopefully he can do that [Monday] night.”
Rodon faced the Royals twice this season, throwing seven innings of one-run ball in Kansas City in June before giving up four runs (two earned) across six innings against them last month at Yankee Stadium.
If he can deliver similar results a third time, he can put the Yankees in the driver’s seat for the series.
“It’s going to be a little different,” Rodon said. “It’s going to be a lot louder. These games are pretty important. I think it’s just one of those things where I go out there, I accept that energy, I bring it in and I harness it to the plate and control what I can control.”
