Carlos Rodón wants to pitch like Gerrit Cole when he starts the AL Championship Series opener for the New York Yankees against Cleveland on Monday night.
After being taken out in the fourth inning of his last game against Kansas City, Rodón watched closely as Cole pitched in the clinching game on Thursday.
“Gerrit’s a good poker player. Me, not so much,” Rodón said Sunday. “I need to be better at poker.”
Cole threw shutout innings until the sixth, where he allowed a double that brought the Yankees’ lead down to two runs, but he got the next batter out. He pitched seven innings in New York’s 3-1 win.
“He didn’t react every inning,” Rodón said. “If you watched him come out, it’s just like a robot walking to the dugout. Then at the end of the seventh, it’s a big roar because he knows like ‘I did my job.’”
Cole will start Game 2 on Tuesday, followed by Clarke Schmidt in Game 3 at Cleveland on Thursday and rookie Luis Gil in Game 4 the next day.
“It was really kind of choosing between Clarke and Carlos,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Sunday. “It just felt like it was close, and I feel like this kind of keeps them on rhythm as much as possible without giving one guy a huge, long layoff.”
The Guardians, who won against the Tigers in Game 5 of their Division Series on Saturday, will start Alex Cobb in Game 1. Cobb allowed two runs and three hits in three innings in his Game 3 start against Detroit, his first game since September 1.
Rodón’s fastball averaged 97 mph against the Royals, which is 1.6 mph higher than his season average, and he struck out three batters in the first inning. He was ahead 1-0 until a home run in the fourth led to a four-run inning.
Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson, and Maikel Garcia each hit singles that caused Rodón to leave the game in a 4-2 loss.
“Usually I start off fairly tame velo-wise and then work my way up to the higher numbers later into the game. I wouldn’t say that’s a reason of why it kind of unraveled for me,” Rodón said. “There’s some times for some better composure, and I think it could help some energy levels for sure.”
