The New York Yankees have started to show why they could compete for their second straight American League title, and their starting rotation has been a pivotal part of this effort. Starters Max Fried and Carlos Rodon joined elite company on Sunday.
According to Katie Sharp of Talkin' Yanks, Fried and Rodon are the first pair of left-handed starters to have 16 or more wins for New York since Andy Pettitte and David Wells accomplished the feat in 1998.
Fried earned his 16th win with seven solid innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. While he surrendered three runs, the 31-year-old did enough to give the Yankees a chance to win a game they badly needed.
“He really buckled down,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told MLB.com. “To get us seven innings [when] we were a little short at the back today, I thought it was a really good effort.”
Rodon presently has a 16-7 record and a 3.12 ERA. He has quietly been one of the Yankees’ most effective starters. According to Baseball Savant, he ranks in the 96th percentile in Pitching Run Value and the 90th percentile in xBA.
Rodon was effective in his latest start. Last week against the Houston Astros, he turned in six innings of one-run baseball and struck out three batters in the process.
“It was my turn to pick them up,” Rodon told the New York Post. “They’ve picked me up all season.”
The Yankees currently hold the top Wild Card spot and are just two games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East standings.
