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Try it freeANAHEIM, Calif. — Carlos Rodón had just thrown his 100th pitch of the night when Aaron Boone made a quick jog out to the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Yankees had a reliever ready and the Angels had a man on second, their first base runner since the third inning.
But Boone got to the mound and found Rodón already shaking his head that he was good, his confidence and words enough to send the manager right back to the dugout without signaling to the bullpen.
Five pitches later, Rodón unleashed a 96 mph fastball on the inside corner that froze the batter for his 10th strikeout of the night.
His masterpiece was done, the Yankees on their way to a 3-2 win at Angel Stadium on Tuesday on the back of yet another terrific pitching performance from their once maligned left-hander.
Rodón turned in arguably the best start of his Yankees tenure, scattering five hits and walking none across seven shutout innings in which he overpowered the Angels.
Devin Williams threatened to spoil it in the ninth inning, entering to protect a 3-0 lead in his first save attempt since April 25 — the game that prompted him to lose the closer’s job — with Luke Weaver unavailable.
Williams gave up a leadoff home run to Yoán Moncada, then a pair of singles to put runners on the corners with one out.
\One run scored on a fielder’s choice before Williams went 3-0 to pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe.
But O’Hoppe got the green light and popped out into foul territory to end it.
The Yankees (34-20) got solo homers from Ben Rice and Oswald Peraza, plus an RBI single from Anthony Volpe, to support Rodón in their 15th win in their past 19 games.
They clinched their seventh straight series victory and will go for the sweep of the Angels (25-29) on Wednesday.
In his 12th start of the season, Rodón lowered his ERA to 2.60, continuing to provide a big lift near the top of the Gerrit Cole-less rotation.
“He’s pitching like an All-Star, plain and simple,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “Whether it’s the innings he gives us, obviously punching out a number of guys and ultimately giving us a chance to win pretty much every time he goes out there. And the couple outings where he’s had a hiccup or whatever, he still seems to give you that five, six [innings], get deeper into the game.
“He’s pitching like a horse right now and that’s coming off a year in which he was very good.”
Rodón had to work through some traffic in the early innings as he scattered a single in the first, a double in the second and two singles in the third.
But he stranded all of them before turning dominant, retiring 13 straight into the seventh inning before Jo Adell’s two-out double, which prompted Boone’s quick mound visit.
After getting Chris Taylor looking at the 96 mph heater to end the seventh — four of his strikeouts were called — Rodón handed it off to Jonathan Loáisiga, who tossed a 1-2-3 eighth.
Rodón helped himself out in the fourth inning, when Adell hit a chopper to the left of the mound.
The 6-foot-2, 255-pound Rodón spryly went after it, stretched out to get the ball in his glove and then turned, hopped and threw off one foot — with all of his momentum going the other way — a one-hopper to Paul Goldschmidt to nab Adell.
The dugout went wild in response and Rodón got some extra love from his teammates after he slowly walked off the field.
Rice broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth by sending a Tyler Anderson changeup into orbit.
Rice crushed his 11th home run of the season 423 feet, a ways up the bleachers in right field to put the Yankees ahead 1-0.
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The DH has cooled off from a results standpoint in recent weeks — he was batting .288 with a 1.005 OPS on April 24 and then entered Tuesday batting .244 with a .846 OPS — but he had continued to hit the ball hard.
On Tuesday, he was finally rewarded for it again, against a left-hander no less.
The Yankees got a gift in the sixth inning when Cody Bellinger drilled a fly ball to the warning track in center field. Matthew Lugo ran back and got under it, but whiffed as the ball fell for a three-base error.
Volpe came up next and roped a single to center to score Bellinger for the 2-0 lead.
Peraza added an insurance run in the seventh when he roped a solo shot to center field, his third of the season, off Héctor Neris to make it 3-0.