Carlos Rodón capped the White Sox's first turn through the rotation with the first decision for any of the team's five starters this season. His effort -- five innings in a 6-0 shutout of the Seattle Mariners -- was good for his first victory in nearly two years.
That's a dramatic way to phrase the combination of his injury issues and the pandemic interruption. Rodón had only made four starts and six appearances since his last win. That said, the confidence in his fastball command almost makes comparisons to Rodón's past forms moot. He hasn't had many starts where he's chosen to use it 60 percent of the time.
The outlier in 2020 was a relief appearance, and even with that unrepresentative sample, he's still among the league's biggest risers.
Sure, Rodón leaned on his fastball partially because his slider control often escaped him, but wasn't a death sentence this time around. When Reynaldo López needs to throw a fastball and he doesn't have 98, he has a hard time punching himself off the ropes. Dylan Cease struggles in the same situation even when he's throwing 99.
Rodón almost could treat his best weapon like a show-me pitch thanks to the velocity and life. Look at the success in fastball deployment between Rodón's first start and Cease's first start:
The tale of the tape all tilts in a unanimous decision for Rodón:
- Swinging strikes: Nine for Rodón, three for Cease
- Balls in play: Seven for Rodón, 12 for Cease
- Average exit velocity: 79.5 for Rodón, 97.1 for Cease
A fastball-first approach could be Rodón's new template for success, assuming he's healthy enough to enjoy it. And while availability has always been a caveat, it's a lot more fun following him when it's the only thing to worry about.
Rodón doesn't just hold the edge over Cease. One turn through the rotation, he had the best line of the bunch:
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K | Pit | GS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giolito | 5.1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 87 | 62 |
| Keuchel | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 69 | 36 |
| Lynn | 4.2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 99 | 52 |
| Cease | 4.2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 92 | 42 |
| Rodón | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 95 | 69 |
| Total/Avg | 23.2 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 12 | 30 | 88 | 52 |
Tony La Russa had a pretty tight leash on all his starters, although none of them really gave him a reason to let them loose. As the rotation begins its second trip through the schedule tonight, here's what I'm looking for from each starter:
Lucas Giolito: Improved fastball command. Specifically with less falling off toward first base. That's not necessarily bad in and of itself, but it's more apparent when it's accompanied by too many pitches pulled gloveside.
Dallas Keuchel: A better cutter. Keuchel's struggled to get it boring in on right-handed swings, and the four balls in play averaged 103.8 mph.
Lance Lynn: Better defense. Lynn more or less met the description by throwing almost entirely fastballs of some sort, with which he got 17 swinging strikes and kept the ball in the park. Inefficiency was an issue, but leaky defense extended some innings.
Dylan Cease: More faith in the slider. Cease doesn't necessarily need a tremendously effective fastball because his slider has the ability to allow him to pitch backward. He just has to avoid the ugly inning where he sees a second plate in the left-handed batter's box to open up different sequences.
Carlos Rodón: Improved slider command. It's a little bit greedy since Rodón might've worked deeper into his first start with better first-inning defense, but if he can line up the improved fastball with his usual breaking ball, it might be fun to play high-low in the strikeout column after he opened with the nine.
(Photo by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire)
