Did Carlos Rodón have a good season?

Gerrit Cole gets the ball for the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS tomorrow against the Royals, and theres precious few people Id rather have on the bump than him.

As hes rounded into form since coming off the IL in June, weve seen him recapture that Cy Young-level dominance he showed last year, intentional walk problems aside.

But lets talk about Game 2s starter, Carlos Rodon.

Rodon made 32 starts this year, crucial for a team that had a lot of volatility in the starting rotation, with a league-average ERA, but it was really a season in three acts: You might think this season resembles a rather unpleasant kind of sandwich one really stinky stretch in between 20-odd good games.

That seven-game derailing came between June 15th and July 22nd, where Carlos had a 7.91 ERA despite striking out almost 30 percent of batters, higher than his season average.

Rodons always been the type to lean heavily on the four-seam fastball, and so it shouldnt be that much of a surprise that he struggled most the less he threw it: This was that part of the season where Rodon started dabbling with his cutter, and while its not a bad show-me pitch, clearly the number one has to be, well, the number one.

Now, baseball doesnt actually work like this, because youre going to have bad starts, but take that seven-start run out and all of a sudden Carlos ERA would sit at a sterling 3.00.

He did pitch to more contact this season, and that could play well against a more contact-inclined team like the Royals Monday night.

In fact, Rodon faced these very same Royals last month, at Yankee Stadium to boot.

He struck out nine against one walk in six innings, although he was tagged for four runs (only two earned): He did give up two home runs on the night, one to Hunter Renfroe and one of course to Sal Perez.

Interestingly enough, both came on the secondary stuff: The curveball outside to Sal is just a textbook example of him selling out for power with every swing, which has kinda been his game for the last three years or so.

You chalk that one up as the cost of doing business.

The hanging changeup to Renfroe is a much more obvious mistake.

He did throw his fastball more than half the time in that outing though, and was let down by his defense for a couple runs in the third inning.

The Royals arent a great offensive team, and theyre especially on the weaker end against heat.

Kansas Citys 21st in the game by wOBA against four-seam fastballs, although they are slightly better against fastballs over 95 mph, which is right about where Rodon sits 95.4 mph this season.

When Carlos wasnt messing with his cutter, and relying on the four-seam, he had a really good season.

His September outing against these Royals came with him leaning on his primary offering, and you have to imagine thats the gameplan for Monday night..

This article has been shared from the original article on pinstripealley, here is the link to the original article.