Carlos Rodon Starts as New York Yankees Face White Sox
The new york yankees were set to open Wednesday’s game with Carlos Rodon on the mound against the White Sox, a left-on-left matchup that put his 2-2 record and 3.19 ERA at the center of the night. First pitch was scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video, with New York entering as a home favorite after Tuesday’s lopsided win.
Rodon and Anthony Kay
Rodon had not allowed more than three runs in any of his six starts, and that run of consistency gave New York a clean read on what it wanted from its starter. The White Sox countered with Anthony Kay, who came in at 6-1 with a 4.34 ERA after holding the Dodgers to two runs in his last outing.
The matchup put two left-handers in the spotlight, but the pressure points were different. Rodon was trying to keep building on a sharp early stretch for New York, while Kay brought the better record but the less polished run prevention numbers.
Yankees Power, White Sox Contact
New York entered with the second-highest wRC+ in baseball at 115, while Chicago sat 11th at 104. That gap did not make the White Sox an overmatched lineup, but it did leave the Yankees with a deeper offensive profile on paper heading into the series opener.
The run prevention numbers leaned New York’s way even more sharply. The Yankees had allowed the fewest home runs per nine innings in baseball at 0.90 and carried the second-best team WHIP in the majors at 1.18, while the White Sox ranked 18th in home runs per nine innings at 1.16 and posted a 1.33 WHIP.
Judge Out, Murakami Out
Both clubs were also missing a key slugger. Aaron Judge was out for the Yankees because of ribs, and Munetaka Murakami was unavailable for the White Sox with a hamstring injury, leaving each lineup short of one of its biggest power sources.
That made the top Yankees picks, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, more important to the night’s matchup than usual. If New York backed Rodon the way it had on Tuesday, the combination of a home edge, stronger power prevention, and a lineup still carrying enough depth could tilt the game its way before the first pitch even arrived.
