Carlos Rodon looks the All-Star part with best start of his Yankees career

Certainly, it was an All-Star day for Carlos Rodón.

Hours after it was announced that he would replace teammate Max Fried in the All-Star Game in Atlanta, the lefty had his best start as a Yankee to date.

Not only did it come against MLB’s highest-scoring offense — the Cubs average 5.41 runs per game — but Rodón pitched a shutout across eight innings and Scott Effross finished the job in a 11-0 Yankees victory.

Rodón allowed four hits and one walk, and was saved three times by big defensive plays from Aaron Judge.

He also tallied eight strikeouts among a season-high 109 pitches.

“Sharp is the word I would use,” manager Aaron Boone said of his starter after the game. “He’s had a really good first half for us, or however far we are now. But that was obviously right up there. I thought he was just so efficient. The strike throwing was good. I thought just the crispness to his fastball, changeup, mixed in some cutters. … Just a really dominant performance against a really good offense.”

Only once did Boone visit Rodón on the mound. It came in the top of the eighth inning after he walked Michael Busch, but he stayed in the game, telling Boone, “I have one more in me.”

It was exactly what Yankees fans wanted.

He soon ran into some trouble, with two runners on base with two outs, but a diving catch from Judge on a fly ball from Kyle Tucker along the right field line preserved the shutout.

“Well, Aaron Judge made three incredible plays for me, so that was part of it,” Rodón said of his outing. “Obviously, Belli [Cody Bellinger] had three homers offensively. We swung the bat well, just gave me a cushion to be able to go out there and be in zone and attack. Defensively, we were pretty spectacular.”

---

---

“That was a heck of a play. That one was probably my favorite, obviously saving some runs from me,” he added.

Rodón and Judge embraced after jogging off the field as the sold-out Yankees crowd erupted for their now three-time All-Star pitcher, which wasn’t always the case.

In his first year in pinstripes, Rodón often heard boos from the fans as he struggled to deliver clean starts.

He had a 6.85 ERA in 2023.

After Friday, he holds a 3.08 ERA in what was his sixth scoreless outing of the season.

“Just kind of roll with the punches. It’s just one of those things. It’s a part of baseball,” Rodón said. “Sometimes, you’re good. Sometimes, you’re bad. You try to trend on the good line more often than not. I wasn’t good when I first got here and I wanted to prove that I wasn’t going to give up and just put my best foot forward and try to win as many games as I can.”