{"id":787667,"date":"2026-05-11T00:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787667\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T00:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:44:18","slug":"yankees-carlos-rodon-shows-good-velocity-struggles-with-control-in-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787667\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Carlos Rod\u00f3n shows good velocity, struggles with control in debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE — Carlos Rod\u00f3n<\/a>‘s seven-month recovery from elbow surgery apparently didn’t do anything to hinder the New York Yankees<\/a> left-hander’s velocity.<\/p>\n

His ability to throw strikes remains a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n made his season debut Sunday and held the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> hitless for the first 3 innings while reaching a peak velocity of 97.7 mph. But he also walked five and hit a batter before leaving with one out in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

His fastball averaged 95.7 mph, up from 94.1 mph last year. Only 42 of the 78 pitches Rod\u00f3n threw were strikes.<\/p>\n

“Velo’s great, but when I’m not commanding the zone, it really doesn’t matter how hard I’m throwing — when you’re spraying it,” Rod\u00f3n said after getting a no-decision in the Yankees’ 4-3 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n was pitching in the majors for the first time surgery Oct. 15 to remove loose bodies in his left elbow and shave a bone spur. His return got pushed back after he dealt with tightness in his left hamstring in late March.<\/p>\n

That followed a 2025 season in which he went 18-9 with a 3.09 ERA and earned his third career All-Star Game selection. He may need some time to regain that form.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n walked the leadoff batter in each of the first two innings but otherwise looked impressive while striking out four over the first three frames.<\/p>\n

“I thought overall his stuff was good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “His fastball ticked up, being up here. I thought he had a really good changeup and some good sliders to get some swing-and-miss.”<\/p>\n

Boone called the high walk total the “bugaboo” for Rod\u00f3n. That proved costly in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n, 33, started that inning by walking William Contreras<\/a> and Gary S\u00e1nchez<\/a>and hitting Andrew Vaughn<\/a> with a pitch, loading the bases. Garrett Mitchell<\/a> brought home a run with a sacrifice fly before Rod\u00f3n allowed a two-run, two-out single to Blake Perkins<\/a>, who is hitting just .122 this season.<\/p>\n

He left the game with two men on and one out in the fifth.<\/p>\n

“It was fun being back out there,” Rod\u00f3n said. “Obviously would have liked to perform better.”<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n’s return came on the final day of a disappointing weekend for the Yankees, who were swept for just the second time all season. Milwaukee’s Brice Turang<\/a> ended the game with a walk-off homer off David Bednar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the Yankees lead the American League in scoring, they totaled just six runs this weekend as Ben Rice<\/a> went 0-for-13 in his return from a bruised hand that caused him to miss four games, Spencer Jones<\/a> was 1-for-9 with five strikeouts in his first three big league games.<\/p>\n

The good news for the Yankees is that Rod\u00f3n’s arrival should boost a starting rotation that already was perhaps the best in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

Yankees starting pitchers entered Sunday with a league-best 3.01 ERA in 40 games. Counting Sunday’s game, Yankees starters have allowed three earned runs or fewer in 19 of their last 22 outings.<\/p>\n

Cam Schlittler<\/a>(5-1) owns an MLB-leading 1.35 ERA to top a rotation that also has featured Max Fried<\/a> (4-2, 2.91), Will Warren<\/a> (4-1, 3.46) and Ryan Weathers<\/a> (2-2, 3.03). The Yankees also have 2023 Cy Young Award winner and six-time All-Star Gerrit Cole<\/a> working his way back from Tommy John surgery after missing the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE — Carlos Rod\u00f3n‘s seven-month recovery from elbow surgery apparently didn’t do anything to hinder the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[321862,5723,1266,2228,50,309327,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-787667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-321862","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rodon-carlos","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116553179045144802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}