Former NC State baseball star and Chicago White Sox left-handed pitcher Carlos Rodón tossed a no-hitter on Wednesday, April 14, coming within two outs of perfection. With an arsenal of pitches that avoids hard contact like the plague, including the addition of a curveball, this Pack Pro is poised for his best season in the majors yet.
Before nearly throwing the 24th perfect game in MLB history and the first since 2012, Rodón opened his season with an impressive performance against Seattle on April 5. The southpaw struck out nine Mariners over five shutout innings to fuel a 6-0 victory for the White Sox. The main deficiency in Rodón’s season debut was his control, as he hit two batters and walked three, leading to a WHIP of 1.00 despite only allowing two hits.
The lefty remedied that weakness in his next outing against Cleveland, throwing eight and a third perfect innings before a runaway slider grazed the foot of opposing catcher Roberto Pérez, sending him to first base and forcing Rodón to settle for the no-no. This hit by pitch was an anomaly that night, however, as Rodón did not walk a single batter in his seven-strikeout performance.
A common theme in Rodón’s two starts so far this season is his ability to make batters miss. The 28-year-old’s strikeout percentage of 32.0 in this season is a career high. This figure is propelled by career-high whiff percentages on three of his four pitches: a four-seam fastball, a slider and a new curveball. When batters do make contact, they don’t fare much better. Rodón’s average exit velocity of 87.5 miles per hour is an improvement from recent years in majors where he last reached the sub-88 mark in 2018.
The biggest factor in Rodón’s resurgence is his return to pre-2020 ground ball rate. Despite sporting his first seasonal fly ball rate over 30%, the lefty has reverted to inducing around 40% of batted balls into ground balls as fans were previously accustomed to before a 28% such rate in 2020. When added to a career-best line drive rate and second consecutive year of decreasing his barrel percentage, Rodón is proving he can prevent batters from hitting balls in the air.
Whether Rodón can continue this rate of production remains to be seen, but for now the southpaw is lighting up his opponents like never before at the major league level. His Chicago White Sox hope he will be able to keep it up as they look to take another shot at the postseason following a quick exit at the hands of the Oakland Athletics in 2020.
