Had it not been for Jung Hoo Lee, the Yankees may have won their weekend series against the Giants. Carlos Rodón might have enjoyed his fourth start of the season, and the home fans may have left Yankee Stadium with smiles on their faces Sunday.
Alas, Lee very much played a part in the three-game set, hitting a three-run homer in Friday’s opener before adding two more longballs off Rodón in a 5-4 rubber match win for the Giants on Sunday afternoon. Lee’s first dinger of the finale only put one run on the board in the fourth frame after Rodón left a slider over the middle, but the outfielder added another three-run shot in the sixth inning on a curveball that hung at the top of the zone.
Prior to the second homer, a soft Christian Koss single went under Anthony Volpe’s glove. Rodón, a Giant in 2022, then walked Willy Adames. The free pass made for a callback to Rodón’s last start against the Tigers, as two walks preceded a three-run homer from Andy Ibáñez that day.
Rodón’s outing didn’t last much longer after Lee’s final left-on-left crime, as Boone pulled the pitcher after 5.2 innings, three hits, four earned runs, three walks, eight strikeouts and 100 pitches. The southpaw, whose success is integral to the Yankees’ injury-ravaged rotation, has now surrendered five home runs this season and is pitching to a 5.48 ERA.
Carlos Rodon has allowed 51 home runs with the Yankees.
That’s tied with JA Happ for the most in any player’s first 50 games with the Yankees.
— New York Yankees Stats (@nyyankeesstats) April 13, 2025
San Francisco pushed another run across in the seventh after Casey Schmitt led the inning off with a double. He then scored as Koss benefitted from some more iffy defense: a fielding error from Paul Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt started the scoring back in the first inning, picking up an RBI single against Giants ace Logan Webb after Aaron Judge doubled off the center field wall. The Yankees added two more runs in the second on a J.C. Escarra double – the first RBI of his career – and a Ben Rice single.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., snapping an 0-for-24 skid, then ripped a solo homer in the eighth, but it was too little, too late for the Yankees.
With the Bombers finally done with a National League-heavy early-season schedule, a rematch from the 2024 American League Division Series awaits.
A three-game series with the Royals begins on Monday. Seth Lugo, the AL Cy Young runner-up last season, will start the opener for Kansas City. Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic will follow.
Carlos Carrasco and Max Fried will start the first two games for the Yankees. Fried has been the pinstripers’ only dependable starter thus far, but they’re hoping he’ll have some help when Clarke Schmidt makes his season debut on Wednesday.
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