ANAHEIM, CA — Left-hander Tyler Anderson, 2-1, 3.60 ERA, and Cuban-American plus 2021 American League LatinoMVP Pitcher of the Year, Carlos Rodón, 6-3, 2.88 ERA, each starting game two of this three game set between the Yankees and Halos at Angel Stadium, gave their respective ball clubs a chance to win Tuesday night’s affair.
Both lefties had been giving their clubs outstanding outings, and you could even take it a notch higher when we speak of Rodón. One can only wonder what this Yankees rotation would look like if Gerrit Cole and 2024 AL LatinoMVP Rookie of the Year & AL ROTY, Luis Gil, Azua, Dominican Republic, were alongside Max Fried and Rodón.
Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
For the first three innings, both starters lived up to what we expected to see as they eased through each other’s lineup with combinations of change-ups, sliders, fastballs, curve balls, and cutters, keeping hitters off balance.
The Yankees would score first in the fourth inning on a two-out, 423-foot solo home run into the right-field bleachers by Ben Rice. It stayed a 1-0 game until the sixth inning when Cody Bellinger hit a fly-ball to center-fielder Matthew Lugo, Manati, Puerto Rico, who dropped it, sending Bellinger to third. In a one-run game with a guy like Rodón pitching like a legitimate Cy Young Award candidate and a legitimate team like the Yankees, you can’t make a mistake like that.
Image Credit: Francisco Rodriguez/Latino Sports
Image Credit: Francisco Rodriguez/Latino Sports
Good teams will jump on errors, and that’s precisely what the Yankees did as the next batter, Anthony Volpe, hit a sharp line drive single to center field to drive in Bellinger with the second Yankee run. The Angels were now forced to remove Anderson, who was at 97 pitches, after he pitched six strong innings, giving up only five hits and two runs, one of which was unearned.
His replacement promptly gave up a 408-foot line drive home run that left the bat of Oswald Peraza, Barquisimeto, Venezuela, at a speed of 111.8 mph, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
Oh, by the way, Peraza is batting .165 and batting ninth in the order. Rodón would leave with a line of seven shutout innings, five hits, no runs, no walks, and ten strikeouts.
He threw 105 pitches, 69 for strikes, lowering his ERA to 2.60 for his seventh win—tied for the MLB and AL lead in 2025.
“That would be great,” said Rodón in the postgame when asked of potentially being named a 2025 AL All-Star, which would mark his first as a Yankee. “But I’m not here for individual accolades, I’m here to win as many ballgames as I can. I think every one in this room is the same way.”
“The accolades are great, that’s something we’re chasing. If it happens, it happens, but the goal is to play the last game of the year.”
The Halos made it interesting in the ninth inning when Yoán Moncada, Cienfuegos, Cuba, on his 30th birthday, led off the last inning with a 413-foot home run into the center field bleachers.
Image Credit: Francisco Rodriguez/Latino Sports
The Angels would add one more off of RHP Devin Williams but eventually fell short, losing 3-2, giving New York a chance to sweep the series Wednesday night.
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