The New York Yankees, even after their 9-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, still have one of the best records in the MLB at 52-31. However, with the AL East being as competitive as it is, the Yankees cannot afford any sort of drop-off. The Baltimore Orioles have overtaken them for the division lead, and now, the Yankees should be very cognizant of some areas of concern as of late amid their roughest stretch of the season.

One such area of concern for the Yankees in recent games is the play of starting pitcher Carlos Rodon. On Thursday night, the Blue Jays didn't even give Rodon a shot at putting up a solid start for the Yankees on the mound. Toronto hammered Rodon to the tune of eight earned runs in five innings en route to a 9-2 loss for New York, continuing a worrying trend for the 31-year old lefty.

Nevertheless, as nightmarish as that performance was from Rodon, Yankees manager Aaron Boone still saw some positives in the way the southpaw starter pitched. Perhaps a few tweaks here and there and some better fortune from the baseball gods would have prevented the game from spiraling out of their control.

“I don’t wanna sugarcoat it too much, but in and around it, you see a lot of the really good tonight. You see the stuff. You see what, [eight] punchouts?” Boone said in his postgame interview, via Talkin' Yanks on Twitter (X). “Maybe it's just some pitch selection in certain situations. We obviously got to execute at a higher level and make the adjustments. Clearly, some teams' game-planning are doing a good job of against him.”

“But while he's wearing it right now and going through it, there's also a part of it that's a gutsy effort to kind of not want out. Want to finish through five, especially with what we're going through as a team right now. We'll make the adjustments. The stuff is there.”

Carlos Rodon still managed to strike out eight batters against just one walk, but the quality of contact that he allowed wasn't too good for the Yankees.

It looked as though the Blue Jays had some hard reads on Rodon's pitches; as Aaron Boone mentioned, George Springer “sold out” for the fastball (Springer had six runs batted in on the night). Perhaps a few changes to pitch sequencing is what the Yankees need to bring out the best in Rodon once more.

Carlos Rodon reacts to his brutal stretch for the Yankees

As the YES Network broadcast pointed out, Carlos Rodon has now tallied a rough 13.17 ERA over his past three starts — a stark contrast from the way he began the season by pitching to the tune of a 2.93 ERA through his first 14 games.

The Yankees have now lost four in a row and eight of their last 10, and their once comfortable cushion atop the AL standings have dissipated. Rodon, for his part, owned up to his shortcomings, and now, he is raring to bounce back from three rocky starts in a row so they could at least steady the ship following an uncharacteristic stretch of games.

“I didn't execute. It was not fun,” Rodon said in his postgame interview, via YES Network. “The command is not great right now. Some adjustments to be made this week. Just need to be better.”