Yankees bashed by Braves as Carlos Rodon gets rocked
A distaste that had been bubbling up for the first three innings did not boil over until the fourth.
Carlos Rodon, demolished all night, became the victim of a stroke of bad luck, too.
Sean Murphy’s ordinary ground ball snuck down the third-base line, and 45,226 groans were heard.
Fill-in left fielder Jahmai Jones gave chase and misplayed the ball in the corner, booting it and allowing an eighth run to score and the lead-footed Murphy to chug all the way to third base.
The game, not even half over, was finished.
Full-throated, resounding boos — the kind rarely heard this season — filled The Bronx and followed Rodon all the way to the dugout. The date read June 21, 2024, but boy did it feel like any time in 2023.
The Yankees set an unofficial major league record in decibel level of jeers heard by a 51-27 club in an 8-1, series-opening smacking by the Braves on Friday.
A club that barely had a worry a week ago has dropped three straight for just the second time this season and six of eight overall.
For the first time in an otherwise smooth season, the Yankees have felt a bit of turbulence.
“It’s been a rough week for us. That’s part of it,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees were outplayed everywhere. “And it’s in a lot of ways not the worst thing to happen, to make sure in a lot of areas we’re tightened up.
“Everything’s kind of gone our way and [this is] a reminder that, hey, this thing’s hard.”
In their first 76 games, the Yankees outscored their opponents by 125 runs.
During that span, a Yankees starting pitcher survived at least four innings in every game.
In games 77 and 78, the Yankees have been outscored 25-6 and out-hit 33-9.
Neither Luis Gil nor Rodon completed the fourth inning, the pair allowing a combined 15 runs in five total frames.
On a night when virtually nothing went right, the Yankees’ offense was silenced, too.
Chris Sale and the Atlanta bullpen held Boone’s bunch to a season-low-tying three hits and one run, which essentially was gifted.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Juan Soto said after the Yankees maintained a half-game edge in the AL East because the Orioles lost. “I think we’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing since Day 1, but it’s not going to be that easy. The struggles are going to come.
“We just got to take it like a man, keep our chin up and keep moving forward.”
Late-arriving fans were better off staying home. The Braves came out swinging, and Rodon came out screaming.
His first fastball was lined into left for a single.
His second pitch, another fastball, was destroyed by Ozzie Albies for a two-run shot into the left-field bleachers, Rodon yelling a curse as soon as bat touched ball.
The damage by a Braves club (42-31) that is not the juggernaut it has been in past seasons — entering play 12th in runs per game — was only beginning.
Three batters later, Austin Riley cracked a 3-1 fastball into the home bullpen. An inning later, three of the first four Braves reached base, culminating with an RBI single from Jarred Kelenic.
The grumbling grew in the third when a Ramon Laureano double scored a run.
The boos were unleashed in the fourth when Matt Olson blasted a two-run homer before a walk and Murphy’s well-placed double ended a Rodon night that felt an awful lot like last season.
And sounded an awful lot like last season.
“It’s just part of it,” Rodon said of the boos after lasting just 3 ²/₃ innings in which he allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits and two walks. “I didn’t perform, obviously, to the best of my ability. It’s just how it goes here.”
The Yankees’ lone run scored in the second inning when Jones’ sky-high fly ball chased left fielder Adam Duvall back to the warning track — before Duvall reversed and charged in, misplaying the drive into a triple. DJ LeMahieu’s groundout scored Jones and prompted just about the final cheers of the night.
A rare silver lining was found in call-up Yoendrys Gomez, who relieved Rodon and tossed 4 ²/₃ scoreless innings.
Another rare silver lining was found in the Yankees finally stumbling, which the club hopes will teach it how to regain its footing.
“We’ll get through this little stretch here,” Boone said, “and Carlos will, too.”
