WASHINGTON — Carlos Rodon was hot and certainly bothered.
The Yankees left-hander had plenty to be frustrated about early Wednesday night, from persistent PitchCom issues to the 98 degrees at first pitch with heavy humidity.
But Rodon may have been most upset with himself as he let the Nationals hit him around and run at will in a 5-2 loss to drop the series at Nationals Park.
Rodon put the Yankees in an early hole they could not climb out of — 4-1 by the end of the second inning — getting held in check by a Nationals lefty for the second night in a row, this time MacKenzie Gore, who tossed six innings of two-run ball.
The Yankees (78-56) went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, making it a brutal 1-for-26 across the three-game series, as their lead atop the AL East shrunk to a half-game pending the Orioles’ late result against the Dodgers.
“Just got to try to keep creating as many opportunities as possible, but obviously didn’t do enough the last two nights just pushing runs across, so we lost the series,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Tough one.”
Rodon’s night finished better than it started, as he eventually settled in after ditching PitchCom for hand signs, but the damage was five runs on eight hits and two walks across 5 ²/₃ innings — along with five stolen bases off him and catcher Austin Wells.
“I just wish I would have got to that groove sooner,” Rodon said. “It’s tough when we’re down [four] runs and not really giving the team a good shot at winning.”
Dylan Crews led off the first inning with the first home run of his career before James Wood singled, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Andres Chaparro then walked to put runners on the corners, which is where things went off the rails.
Juan Yepez was at the plate when Rodon went to signal that his PitchCom wasn’t working before he stepped off the mound. Home plate umpire Tony Randazzao called him for a balk, allowing Wood to score from third base to make it 2-0, as Rodon got animated while pleading his case to no avail.
“The balk, I was pissed about it,” Rodon said. “I didn’t step off soon enough. But the PitchCom wasn’t working. It was what it was, I should have stepped off first and confronted [the umps] about the PitchCom. I gave up a stupid run there so that was pretty upsetting. Just tried to move on from it and go attack. It wasn’t my best.”
The PitchCom issues continued, though — they also gave the Yankees trouble Monday night — and even after trying a new device, they eventually switched to hand signs (which by rule forced the Nationals to also ditch PitchCom).
In the second inning, the Nationals (61-73) tacked on two more runs off Rodon on three singles and four steals.
Their top speed from Jacob Young, Nasim Nunez and Wood — along with Wells having to give Rodon hand signs, which may have pulled his attention from holding runners on — proved to be a bad combination.
“We just have to do a better job mixing looks and holding runners, gotta make some better throws,” Wells said. “I don’t think it’s on the PitchCom or anything, it’s on us.”
For the second straight night, the Yankees had a chance to come back in the ninth after the Nationals ran themselves into a bizarre double play in the bottom of the eighth on a deep single to center field.
Anthony Volpe singled and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked to lead off the ninth against Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan before Boone sent up Oswaldo Cabrera as a pinch-hitter for DJ LeMahieu — a night after letting LeMahieu hit for himself against Finnegan and fly out. Boone said he “just felt like that was the right thing to do there.”
But the end result was the same, as Cabrera flied out to center, Alex Verdugo grounded out to Finnegan, and Gleyber Torres struck out to leave Juan Soto on deck to end it.
Chisholm’s solo home run and Aaron Judge’s RBI single were the only runs the Yankees scored Wednesday, capping off a series in which Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton went 4-for-34 with five walks — including 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“If we continue to be whatever-for-double digits with runners in scoring position, we’ll sign up for that the rest of the way if we can continue to create that pressure,” Boone said. “We just didn’t punch through tonight and [Tuesday] night.”
