AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GUARDIANS VS YANKEES

October 14, 2024

Carlos Rodon

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Yankees - 5, Guardians - 2

Q. Aaron just called your outing tonight dominant. How would you describe the outing? What stands out to you the most?

CARLOS RODÓN: I thought Austin was great behind the plate. He had a good idea of how he wanted to handle the hitters. Then defensively we had some great play out there as well from Judge and infield as well.

Then the bullpen coming in to shut the door was great. Obviously offensively, we scored some runs with big swings from Soto and Big G and some competitive bats. It seems like we know the strike zone very well, so we played a very good game.

Q. You had 25 swings and misses tonight. What was just working so well for you?

CARLOS RODÓN: It was just -- it seemed like it was mostly fastball, slider. Mixed in some change-ups, a couple cutters. Like I said, I thought Austin had a good idea and good game plan behind the plate. I was just throwing to where he wanted me to throw it.

Q. How much more comfortable did you feel out there compared to Game 2 against Kansas City?

CARLOS RODÓN: Yeah, it was just -- the goal was to just stay in control, stay in control of what I can do, obviously physically and emotionally. I thought I executed that well tonight.

Q. When you signed here two off-seasons ago, are these the kinds of performances you envisioned yourself having?

CARLOS RODÓN: Yeah, it mostly is just the opportunity to be able to pitch in a game like this, yes.

Q. Given this stage, where does this performance rank in your career?

CARLOS RODÓN: Yeah, it's up there. I've never pitched in the ALCS before, so this is my first time. There's no bigger stage in baseball, so I would say it's definitely up there.

Q. Given how well you were pitching, was it challenging to kind of maintain that emotional level of just kind of being right at one level, or did you break character ever?

CARLOS RODÓN: No. I had it under control most of the night. Like I said, we had a press conference earlier before the game, I think a couple days ago. I watched Gerrit throw that Game 4 in Kansas City, and mentally I was taking notes on how he was going out there and going about it, and I just wanted to kind of go about it the same way. I thought I did well with that tonight.

Q. You went through the 3, 4, 5 in the order in the fourth inning. I think it was part of 11 in a row you sat down. Then you won a nine-pitch at-bat against Ramírez, and you talked the other day about how tough he is.

CARLOS RODÓN: He's a great hitter. If you look at his numbers versus me, he's had, I would say, around 40 or so, probably more at-bats. He's hitting pretty well against me. He's one of the better hitters in our game.

That last at-bat against him, it was tough. Any time I go up against José, it's a tough at-bat, and he puts a tough at-bat up there and he fights off tough pitches. He's such a great player.

I was fortunate Judgy ran down that ball. He hit two balls hard to center. That was the goal, to keep him to the center of the field or the right side of the field. He always puts a good at-bat up.

Q. That fourth inning, was that key after you guys scored those runs on the wild pitches to shut them down?

CARLOS RODÓN: Yeah, that was the goal, to shut down the inning after we scored there. Go out there and put up a zero.

Q. You mentioned Gerrit Cole, his poker face. What exactly specifically were you able to take from him? What's it like on the mound? What are you actually doing to hold that mindset?

CARLOS RODÓN: There's some big spots in that game for Gerrit. I can't remember, there's runners on and he gets out of a jam. It's pretty even keel walking off the mound. There's no screaming. There's no fist pumping or anything. He's just, like I said, like a robot. He walks out and walks across the line and into the dugout.

Yeah, it's not that it's hard. It's just being mindful of it and being focused on the next pitch, and I think that kind of leads to that robot, that poker face.