Yankees 1, Braves 8: Carlos gets crushed (2024)

Between Luis Gil and Carlos Rodón, Yankees starters have given up 15 runs in the last two games, both men combining to cover just five innings. And while the unit as a whole has been largely excellent for the whole season, its amazing how a pair of blowups can change the tenor around the rotation. The offense had pretty much no answer for Chris Sale, tallying just three hits the entire game to drop the series opener, 8-1.

The Yankees became the first team since 1900 to have their starters complete four-plus innings for 76 consecutive games, but now both Gil and Rodón have failed to hit that mark in the last two contests. Just like in his last start against the Red Sox, it was apparent from first pitch that Rodón just didn’t have it tonight, and the Braves punished mistake after mistake.

Indeed, Rodón yielded a single to Jarred Kelenic with that first pitch of the game and then served up a two-run blast to Ozzie Albies with his second pitch of the game — a center-cut fastball that Albies jumped all over. Being down 2-0 when you’ve only thrown two pitches is actually the worst possible start a starter could have to a game, and it would be impressive if it wasn’t so distressing to watch. Rodón wasn’t done serving up meatballs, grooving a 3-1 fastball to Austin Riley, who sent it soaring to right-center to put the Yankees in a 3-0 hole facing one of the best pitchers so far this season.

That was only the appetizer. Atlanta scored one in the second, with Rodón giving up a leadoff Adam Duvall single and Ramón Laureano double to put runners on the corners with no outs followed by a Kelenic RBI single, and one in the third, as Rodón again allowed the first two men to reach — Matt Olson leading off with a single followed by a Riley walk — before ceding another Laureano two-out double to plate Olson. Rodón’s final act saw Atlanta continue to pile it on in the fourth, Albies clubbing a one-out double to set up another two-run homer, this time by Olson. A Riley walk and Sean Murphy double made it 8-1 Braves and brought a merciful end to Rodón’s night after allowing at least six hitters to come to the plate in each inning he pitched.

In the end, it painted a picture of a starter grasping at straws. Atlanta was super aggressive on the first pitch early — perhaps the scouting report indicated that Rodón tends to find the middle of the plate with first-pitch fastballs. Rodón then over-adjusted to this aggression and found himself behind in the count for much of the rest of his afternoon as he was tentative not wanting to get ambushed on first pitch. All this did was force Rodón to throw a fastball in exactly the same spot as the Braves were jumping on at the start of the game. What’s more, Rodón’s last three starts have seen him struggle to locate his slider below the zone, with too many ending up middle or elevated, and that’s enough to tell me that something mechanical is awry. He ended his night having given up eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits and two walks in 3.2 innings.

Chris Sale on the other hand was pretty much untouchable for five innings, allowing a run on one hit and three walks to go along with eight strikeouts. The lone blemish on his card was a Jahmai Jones triple in the second, later coming around to score on a DJ LeMahieu RBI groundout. The Yankees had their best chance to cut further into the deficit in the fifth with Jones and LeMahieu drawing walks to open the inning, but Jose Trevino struck out, Ben Rice flew out, and Oswaldo Cabrera struck out to strand them in place.

There weren’t many positives to be taken from this game, but the one clear one was the performance of Yoendrys Gómez, only called up earlier in the day. He had previously struck out the side against the Padres in his one previous inning of MLB work this season, and he looked equally sharp coming on in relief of Rodón. He tossed 4.2 scoreless innings allowing three hits and three walks against five strikeouts. It was impressive to see the confidence he had in five pitches — four-seamer, sweeper, slider, changeup, and curveball — with the sweeper and changeup looking the nastiest of the bunch, racking up a combined nine whiffs on 15 swings.

After the fourth, the game drew to a rather expedient end as the Yankees managed just two more singles — Giancarlo Stanton in the seventh and Anthony Volpe in the ninth — and the Braves won this one easily, 8-1.

Marcus Stroman is tasked with getting the rotation and team back on track. He’ll face Charlie Morton, with first pitch scheduled for 7:15pm ET on FOX.

Box Score