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A putrid A’s lineup helped Carlos Rodon have his best start of the young season.
Whether his seven scoreless innings in a 2-0 loss to the A’s in The Bronx marks a turning point for the left-hander remains to be seen, but he showed some promising signs Monday.
He threw five pitches effectively and pitched well despite not having dominating stuff.
“He pitched,’’ Aaron Boone said of Rodon, who allowed just one hit, a fifth-inning single by Nick Allen. “I didn’t think, early on, he had good life like his last start. He made a lot of really good pitches and there was a little bit of everything.”
To Boone’s point, Rodon’s velocity was slightly down and he struck out just four batters.
He also walked a pair and hit two, but the only time he found trouble came in the top of the fourth, when Rodon walked Esteury Ruiz and then hit Tyler Nevin to give the A’s runners on first and second with no one out and their 3-4-5 hitters coming up.
He responded by getting Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers and Abraham Toro to retire the side and keep the game scoreless.
The fact that Oakland’s lineup is filled with a bunch of Quadruple-A players makes it easier to be at least somewhat skeptical of Rodon’s performance, since the A’s have scored more runs than only the disastrous White Sox.
Rodon will take it, though.
It marked his longest start as a Yankee and showed that instead of simply relying on his fastball and slider to get outs, he can use a cutter, which he’s thrown on 15 percent of his pitchers this season — including on Monday — after adding it prior to the season.
“I used everything today,’’ Rodon said of his arsenal. “Last year was more of a fastball, slider mix and this year, I use different pitches to get ahead. I wouldn’t say I reinvented myself. I always threw four pitches and I added a cutter for five.”
But he’s throwing the slider less, so far with mixed results.
Boone said the addition of the cutter gives hitters something else to look for, so they can’t sit on the fastball or slider, if one is especially effective.
And Monday was another solid example of that, even if it came in a loss.
“Overall, it was a good day of pitching,’’ Rodon said.
Rodon has had a hard time again this season with walks and noted Monday that while he “started off slow” in the outing in that department, it improved over the course of the game.
He also responded well after hitting leadoff hitter Esteury Ruiz to open the outing by picking him off and then retiring the next nine batters before he hit Tyler Nevin with a pitch in the fourth.
