The nightmare continues for the New York Yankees. The team has fallen off steeply from the lofty heights of May. Since then, they’ve lost series after series and that has also led to frustrations creeping in. First, it was Marcus Stroman who showed his anger with the team’s defensive plays. Now, it’s the turn of Carlos Rodon, who was visibly frustrated after Aaron Boone called him back. However, if one goes by Boone’s words – it was an unavoidable decision.

With a 3-2 result, the Yankees lost another series, this time to the Cincinnati Reds. While Carlos Rodon wasn’t as bad as his past 3 starts, the star still made a couple of costly mistakes. In 5.1 innings, Rodon gave away 3 hits and 3 runs with 8 strikeouts. That was an encouraging performance by all rights but with the Yankees hitters failing, it couldn’t bring a win to the Bronx Bombers camp. However, a key issue came in the 5th inning when Boone recalled Rodon. 

“No way” mouthed Rodon after he saw Boone walking to the mound. The star tried to extend his stay till the 6th inning but the manager didn’t budge. As a result, he gave the ball to Boone and unhappily walked away. Now Boone has explained that he was just trying to protect Rodon’s good performance. “I didn’t want to get him in a bad spot at the end of the night where a mistake could have hurt him,” Boone said.

The skipper was “convicted” in the decision after he saw Rodon giving away a walk to Jeimer Candelario in his 95th pitch. Boone shared that he trusted Michael Tonkin to take on a bunch of righties that were about to come. However, his chief reason remained to end Rodon’s play on a positive note. He wanted the $162 million pitcher to build back some confidence after successive bad starts.

Carlos Rodon too understood the sentiment of his skipper. After the game, he shared that while he didn’t want to come off the game, there was no anger inside him for the New York Yankees skipper.

Carlos Rodon explains his competitiveness amidst the Yankees’ continuous fall

Though he was a bit unhappy with the decision, Carlos Rodon later understood why the skipper wanted him out. “It’s just me competing and I don’t want to come off the wrong way,” Rodon said, adding, “I wanted to stay in and get those last two outs in that inning. But I understand that, turn it over to Tonkin, and he gets two outs easy.” However, while Tonkin managed to stop the bleeding, the Yankees’ hitters continued to disappoint.

Apart from Anthony Volpe’s two-run double, the rest of the Bronx Squad couldn’t muster up a consistent flow of attack. Though, they had multiple opportunities to do so, especially in the 9th inning a string of bad decisions killed the wave before it could begin. As a result, for the first time this season, the Yankees are 2 games behind in their AL East division. That is a scary situation indeed.

What makes it more alarming is that the teams above and below them are going through a great run of games. The Baltimore Orioles haven’t put a wrong step and the Boston Red Sox now have 46 wins and are visibly going through a purple patch. So, the New York Yankees need to find their solutions soon, else, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them fighting for Wildcard Spot.

What’s your take on Rodon’s explanation? Let us know below.