Elmer Rodríguez has faced some seriously fierce competition in his first three MLB starts, squaring off against Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, and today Freddy Peralta. He authored the best start of his young MLB career, holding the Mets to a run while pitching into the fifth to match the way Peralta was repeatedly silencing each Yankees threat that appeared on the bases. It took until the sixth and an Anthony Volpe two-run single to spark an eventual four-run frame. However, all of that hard work was undone in an instant when David Bednar surrendered the game-tying three-run homer to Tyrone Taylor with two outs in the ninth, the Mets eventually succeeding in plating the automatic runner an inning later to walk off the Yankees, 7-6, and win the series from their crosstown rivals. The Bombers remain winless in Citi Field series since 2018, finishing up this road trip through Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Queens at an appalling 2-7.
ERC is widely regarded to possess the most advanced command of his arsenal of any of the Yankees’ pitching prospects. He might not possess the top-end stuff of some of the other members of his cohort, but he was always able to overcome that with his strike throwing abilities and command of the edges of the zone. That was why it was so alarming to see him pitch so wildly in much of his first two career big league starts against the Rangers, walking eight batters in 8.2 innings. However, he appeared to find something after a three-run first inning threatened to derail his most recent start against Texas, and went on to pitch a further 3.2 scoreless innings.
Whatever adjustment he discovered, it looks like he was able to carry that momentum into today’s start against the Mets. Most of his misses with the fastball in his first two starts were high to the glove side, which you wondered whether it was a natural side effect of his crossfire delivery, but it was clear from the jump this afternoon that he found a good line for the delivery of his four-seamer and sinker. Because he fell behind in so many counts against Texas, he was never able to take advantage of the deadly secondaries in his arsenal, but getting ahead in counts today allowed him to hunt chases on his slider, changeup, and curveball out of the zone. The Mets fired off a fair bit of hard contact, but ERC putting himself in a position to use his secondaries allowed him to largely keep the ball just above or just below the barrel of the bat.
It’s a good thing ERC brought his A-game to the park, because his offense repeatedly wasted the opportunities they created for themselves. Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger drew a pair of two-out walks in the first but were stranded by a Jazz Chisholm Jr. strikeout. Volpe tallied his first base hit of his season with a two-out double in the second, but J.C. Escarra stranded him at second with a fly out. Ben Rice finally broke through in the third, crushing a 2-1 changeup that stayed up to right for a 409-foot solo blast, moving into a tie for the fourth-most home runs in MLB at 15.
Unfortunately, Ryan McMahon would strand Bellinger and Jazz with a groundout after they drew a pair of two-out walks following the Rice home run. That volume of missed chances was always liable to come back to haunt them, and indeed they surrendered the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Mark Vientos bounced a one-out single through the right side and Brett Baty followed with a two-out bloop single. This allowed the struggling Marcus Semien to ambush a mistake first-pitch sinker middle-middle from ERC, slicing it down the line in right for the game-tying RBI double. A.J. Ewing then worked a walk to load the bases, but ERC executed a good four-seamer down and in to Hayden Senger for the inning-ending ground out to leave all three ducks on the pond.
He was allowed to come back out for the fifth, but following a leadoff HBP of Carson Benge and with Juan Soto coming to the plate, Aaron Boone called on Ryan Yarbrough out of the bullpen. The crafty lefty allowed a two-out single to Vientos to put runners on the corners, but Trent Grisham bailed out his pitcher with a diving catch on a sinking line drive from Taylor to save two runs. That put a cap on ERC’s final line, the rookie allowing a run on five hits and a walk with one strikeout in 4.1 innings.
Peralta was showing clear signs of fatigue by the sixth, his fastball losing four mph off it’s peak as he walked Bellinger and Jazz to open the frame. That was enough to draw Carlos Mendoza out of the dugout to hand the ball to Sean Manaea, who gave up a McMahon sac bunt and hit pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt on the front foot to load the bases with one out. Volpe was the one to finally provide the timely hit with runners on, pulling a first pitch hanging sweeper to left to plate a pair and put runners on the corners. Pinch-hitter Amed Rosario lifted a fly deep enough to left to plate pinch-runner Max Schuemann, Volpe shrewdly tagging up and taking second on the play. That proved to be an important moment, as the ghost of Luis Castillo paid a visit to Citi Field for the second time this series, Bo Bichette dropping a pop up from Grisham to allow Volpe to score the fourth run of the inning.
Despite now pitching with the lead, Yarbrough felt like a ticking time bomb, and Boone apparently agreed because he hooked the southpaw after a Semien single and Ewing walk in the sixth. The move immediately backfired as Jake Bird coughed up a two-run double to Luis Torrens on a 1-1 sweeper right down Broadway, though he did manage to record the final two outs to send this game to the seventh with the Yankees still leading, 5-3.
Patience from the bottom of the Yankees order earned them an insurance run in the seventh. Bellinger and Jazz reached on consecutive one-out singles and Schuemann drew a walk to load the bases. Up stepped the man of the hour, Volpe grinding back from 0-2 to draw the free pass that plated Bellinger as the Yankees’ sixth run. Just when it looked like the Yankees had the win in the bag, Camilo Doval pitching a scoreless seventh and Fernando Cruz a scoreless eighth, David Bednar undid all the hard work of his teammates. He allowed a pair of leadoff singles to Benge and Bichette, and though he was able to record the next two outs, he hung a first pitch curveball to Taylor, who demolished it to left to level the scores, 6-6.
The Yankees put runners on the corners with one out in the tenth, but that brought the slumbering Austin Wells to the plate and you know how that was always going to end: the inning-ending double play. Failing to score in the top of the tenth typically leads to walk-off losses. Tim Hill had the unenviable task of trying to pitch a scoreless half-inning, but a Ewing sac bunt, Torrens HBP, and Benge walk-off fielder’s choice—one in which Volpe and Schuemann ran into each other—condemned the Yankees to a 7-6 loss and their second straight series loss against a last-place team.
The Yankees will hope they can bounce back starting tomorrow against the Blue Jays. Ryan Weathers faces off against Patrick Corbin in the series-opening battle of southpaws. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm EDT with the broadcast remaining on YES.
