Yankees takeaways from Friday's 12-5 loss to Royals, including Carlos Rodon's historically bad start
Carlos Rodon turned in the worst start of his career on Friday night, failing to record an out after facing eight batters, in the Yankees' 12-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Here are the takeaways…
-Rodon’s first season in pinstripes has been largely disappointing and came to an excruciating end Friday night in Kansas City.
The $162 million-dollar left-hander was removed after eight batters, allowing eight earned runs on six hits and two walks with zero innings pitched to put a cap on a forgettable 2023 season.
It was a historically bad start, tying the record with five other pitchers for the most runs (8) allowed in a start without recording an out since 1901 and becoming the first Yankees pitcher to do so.
Rodon’s frustration was clear on the mound, too. He turned his back toward pitching coach Matt Blake as he came out to the mound to check on Rodon following a two-run home run from Edward Olivares and back-to-back singles from Nelson Velazquez and Nick Loftin with the Bombers trailing, 4-0.
After Blake’s visit, Rodon allowed an RBI single to Matt Duffy and walked Logan Porter to load the bases and ultimately ending Rodon’s night.
The Yankees bullpen did not help Rodon out, either, as Matt Bowman allowed back-to-back singles, which brought in all three of the runners Rodon left on base to cement his place in the unfavorable section of the history books.
The disastrous outing comes following a string of impressive starts from Rodon, who had allowed three or fewer runs in his previous three starts and struck out 23 batters in his last 18 innings.
Instead, Rodon heads into the offseason with a final ERA of 6.85.
-The first out the Yankees recorded in the first inning was a sac fly to No. 2 hitter Bobby Witt Jr. The 10 consecutive batters the Yankees allowed to reach base to open a game tied a franchise record, set by Catfish Hunter and Bob Kammeyer on July 27, 1978 vs. Cleveland.
-If there are any positives to take away from not only this game, but the final month of the season, it is undoubtedly Austin Wells, who continued his hot hitting at the plate.
The 24-year-old catcher, who was called up from Triple-A on Sept. 1, blasted a three-run home run in the fourth. Wells now has four home runs in his last seven games with a slash line of .296/.321/.778.
He also drove in another run in the sixth with an RBI groundout to make the score 10-5.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees continue their final series of the season with the Royals on Saturday night at 7:10 p.m ET.
Clarke Schmidt (9-9, 4.65 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Yankees, while the Royals have not yet announced a starting pitcher for the game.
