With two games remaining in a meaningless season, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was still calming down the locker room on Saturday after Carlos Rodón and pitching coach Matt Blake got into it the night before.

During a 12-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals, Blake stepped out of the dugout to try to motivate Rodón after he had allowed all eight batters he faced to reach base and eventually score. Rodón turned his back on Blake after a brief conversation and motioned for him to return to the dugout, all while the coach was still talking.

For Boone’s club to extend its winning run to 31 seasons, it needed to win one of its final two games against the Royals. As the saying goes, “Things happen in the heat of bаttle, but it’s been addressed.”

In retrospect, Rodón claimed he was “not in the right mind” when he ignored his pitching coach’s advice.

The Yankees wasted their money on Rodón’s first year of a $162 million, six-year contract. His forearm strain put him on the disabled list first, and then his back ailment caused a setback. The Yankees are 3-11 in Rodón’s starts and have a 6.85 ERA following his poor performance on Friday night. He made his season debut on July 7 and lost four of his first five appearances.

That could have been the reason why Rodón, who is notorious for his temper, seemed to lose it in Kansas City.

Rodón didn’t get an out in 35 pitches, allowing four hits, two walks, a double, and a sure home run to Edward Oliveras, who was batting for the Yankees. The 10 consecutive hitters that eventually reached for Kansas City were the most to start a game against the Yankees since the Cleveland Indians had that many reach against Catfish Hunter and Bob Kammeyer on July 27, 1978. This was the most batters faced without recording an out by a starter since Steven Matz faced eight for the Mets in 2019.

Blake said he didn’t get a chance to talk to Rodón after Friday night’s game, but they had a lengthy conversation first thing Saturday morning.

“He’s been around for a long in the league. Blake remarked, “You know, this is one we’re going to look back on and wish we had back, so we want him to go out there and have a lot of success and behave in the right ways.”

Rodón’s demeanor wasn’t the only cause for alarm. The Royals capitalized by consistently connecting on his slower fastball (averaged 93.6 mph, down from 95.3 mph on the season).

“Last night was a little surprising,” Blake admitted, adding that he did not believe the decrease in velocity was due to ιnjury. Sometimes he gets into the rhythm of the game, but he never did that last night. We plan to keep investigating this further.

Even more remarkably, Boone added that Rodón had offered to pitch in the final two games of the season.

That should give you a good idea of his physical condition, Boone added.

He’s been around the league for a long, too, so that’s some news. Blake remarked, “You know, this is one we’re going to look back on and wish we had back, so we want him to go out there and have a lot of success and behave in the right ways.”

On the same day, the Yankees placed outfielder Jasson Dominguez to the 60-day disabled list and optioned right-handed pitcher Randy Vásquez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

After being traded from Oakland to the Yankees last season, Montas was hampered by a labrum issue until he underwent surgery on the area on February 21 in Los Angeles. Boone claimed he deserved a chance to pitch this season because he had worked so hard to get healthy, and on Saturday, he pitched two scoreless innings during a rehab assignment at Triple-A. On October 19, 2022, Montas made his final major league appearance, which was also the first game of the ALCS.

Even though it’s the final weekend of the season, “he’s worked hard to get himself back and want to go out there,” Boone said.