NEW YORK -- The New York Mets spent a lot of money the last two years to upgrade their lineup, and early on this season it's working. They're fourth in MLB in runs scored, and with a resurgent Francisco Lindor alongside Pete Alonso, Starling Marte and others, they look like a nightly threat.
On Wednesday night, Carlos Rodón went up against that group and quickly realized he had no feel for his slider or curveball. That would be a nightmare for just about any pitcher in the league, but Rodón sort of shrugged. He simply turned to his fastball, and then did it again, and again, and again and again, throwing his four-seamer 81 percent of the time while overwhelming the Mets and leading the Giants to a 5-2 win.
Of Rodón’s 95 pitches, 77 were four-seamers. He got swinging strikes or called strikes with 29 of them.
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SIGN UP HERE "The quality of that fastball is exactly what we should be talking about, manager Gabe Kapler said. "Because these are really, really good hitters who are set up to handle that style of pitching and still are swinging and missing at balls in the zone and sometimes in the middle of the plate. It's a unique fastball. We haven't seen many like it over the last couple of years."
Rodón threw just 13 sliders and five curveballs, and he didn’t think many of them were any good. He said he realized early that he was “kind of pitching with one pitch.” That didn’t matter in his biggest spot.
Rodón allowed just two baserunners in the first three innings, but Alonso lined a single with one out in the fourth and Eduardo Escobar followed with a 10-pitch walk. Rodón had jumped ahead 0-2, but Escobar fouled off four pitches while working the walk. All that did was fire up Rodón, who simply reached into the back pocket for his best fastball.
Rodón started the next batter, Mark Canha, with 96 mph up and in for a strike. After Canha fouled 97 mph into Joey Bart's glove, Rodón froze him with another 97 mph fastball, this one right on the inside edge of the plate.
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J.D. Davis followed and Rodón again went in on the hands, throwing a 96 mph fastball that was inside but called a strike. Rodón came to the exact same spot for strike two and Davis swung through it. The third strike -- and the sixth straight fastball in the sequence -- was a 97.4 mph fastball right down the pipe that Davis waved at. As he walked off the mound, Rodón yelled an expletive to himself.
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"Sometimes you've got to go with what you've got,” he said. “Today was the heater and I was fortunate enough to get some swings and misses and fly ball outs. They did a good job of running the pitch count up.”
That was the frustrating part of not having his full repertoire. Rodón was limited to five innings, but he struck out eight, getting to an MLB-leading 29 on the season. That’s the most ever for a Giants starter in his first three starts in orange and black.
Rodón’s third start for the Giants was not what he could have expected, but he adjusted on the fly and the Giants got a win that wiped away all of Tuesday’s sour memories.
“The breaking stuff wasn’t very good so we just decided to go with the fastball,” he said. “And luckily it worked in my favor.”
