MILWAUKEE (AP) — Carlos Rodón’s seven-month recovery from elbow surgery apparently didn’t do anything to hinder the New York Yankees left-hander’s velocity.
His ability to throw strikes remains a work in progress.
Rodón made his season debut Sunday and held the Milwaukee Brewers hitless for the first 3 2/3 innings while reaching a peak velocity of 97.7 mph. But he also walked five and hit a batter before leaving with one out in the fifth inning.
His fastball averaged 95.7 mph, up from 94.1 mph last year. Only 42 of the 78 pitches Rodón threw were strikes.
“Velo’s great, but when I’m not commanding the zone, it really doesn’t matter how hard I’m throwing – when you’re spraying it,” Rodón said after getting no decision in the Yankees’ 4-3 loss.
Rodón was pitching in the majors for the first time surgery Oct. 15 to remove loose bodies in his left elbow and shave a bone spur. His return got pushed back after he dealt with tightness in his left hamstring in late March.
That followed a 2025 season in which he went 18-9 with a 3.09 ERA and earned his third career All-Star Game selection. He may need some time to regain that form.
Rodón walked the leadoff batter in each of the first two innings but otherwise looked impressive while striking out four over the first three frames.
“I thought overall his stuff was good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “His fastball ticked up, being up here. I thought he had a really good changeup and some good sliders to get some swing-and-miss.”
Boone called the high walk total the “bugaboo” for Rodón. That proved costly in the fourth inning.
Rodón, 33, started that inning by walking William Contreras and Gary Sánchez and hitting Andrew Vaughn with a pitch, loading the bases. Garrett Mitchell brought home a run with a sacrifice fly before Rodón allowed a two-run, two-out single to Blake Perkins, who is hitting just .122 this season.
He left the game with two men on and one out in the fifth.
“It was fun being back out there,” Rodón said. “Obviously would have liked to perform better.”
Rodón’s return came on the final day of a disappointing weekend for the Yankees, who were swept for just the second time all season. Milwaukee’s Brice Turang ended the game with a walk-off homer off David Bednar.
Although the Yankees lead the American League in scoring, they totaled just six runs this weekend as Ben Rice went 0 for 13 in his return from a bruised hand that caused him to miss four games, Spencer Jones was 1 for 9 with five strikeouts in his first three big league hames.
The good news for the Yankees is that Rodón’s arrival should boost a starting rotation that already was perhaps the best in the major leagues.
Yankees starting pitchers entered Sunday with a league-best 3.01 ERA in 40 games. Counting Sunday's game, Yankees starters have allowed three earned runs or fewer in 19 of their last 22 outings.
Cam Schlitter (5-1) owns an MLB-leading 1.35 ERA to top a rotation that also has featured Max Fried (4-2, 2.91), Will Warren (4-1, 3.46) and Ryan Weathers (2-2, 3.03). The Yankees also have 2023 Cy Young Award winner and six-time All-Star Gerrit Cole working his way back from Tommy John surgery after missing the 2025 season.
New York Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodon throws to the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodón throws to the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked military facilities and airports in Saudi Arabia as the war between the kingdom and the Iran-backed rebels escalated.
Israelis are marking the third anniversary of the Palestinian militant Hamas group’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which sparked a devastating war in Gaza, while for Palestinians the anniversary ushers in yet another day of misery.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage is available here.
The Houthis used ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, to attack military facilities and airports in Saudi Arabia, the rebels’ military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said Wednesday on social media. He didn’t provide evidence for the claim.
The attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh, with missiles, he said.
Flights to and from the airport were disrupted, with planes holding away from the airfield, according to Flightradar24, a tracking platform.
Also attacked were Abha airport, military facilities in Khamis Mushait and other “critical sites” in the cities of Najran and Asir, Saree said.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said they intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the rebels north of Riyadh.
The attacks came as Saudi Arabia and its allied Yemeni forces launched a major ground and air offensive on the Houthis on Yemen’s western coast and elsewhere in the country.
The Houthis also said they launched a missile strike early Wednesday against Yemen’s port city of Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government.
An Associated Press journalist heard explosions that rocked the city around 2 a.m. local time.
Israelis gathered at intersections, bomb shelters and the site of a music festival that Hamas-led militants overran on Oct. 7, 2023, to mark the anniversary of the attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. The attack also sparked the war in Gaza and led to a series of conflicts across the Middle East.
“Every morning, you wake up and there is just endless missing,” said Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son, Sean, in the attack.
For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of misery and difficulties after an Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Most of the population, about 2 million people, lives in vast, squalid tent camps, with large parts of the strip’s cities reduced to rubble. More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military, and despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.
“Since October 7th, we have lived a life we never imagined,” said Gaza City resident Walid Akram. “We witnessed death, destruction, and bombardment that we had never known before."
Hamas has portrayed the Oct. 7 attack as a response to decades of Israeli military occupation, land seizures and settlement construction. No events were expected Wednesday in Gaza
Three years after Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the city of Rafah, which used to be home to a quarter million people, lies in ruins.
The Israeli military has razed the southern city and other towns and districts to the ground, satellite imagery shows.
Demolition, using bulldozers and explosives, has continued since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal was reached a year ago.
Gaza’s devastated landscape is just one of many wounds that the enclave’s 2 million Palestinians have endured since the Israeli campaign that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. More than one out of every 10 people from Gaza’s prewar population has been killed or wounded by Israeli fire.
With almost the entire population homeless, the coastal territory is now effectively one of the world’s most populated tent cities.
An Israeli drone strike killed one older man and wounded seven other people in southern Gaza on Wednesday, according to health officials.
Dr. Mohamed Saqr, a manager at Nasser Hospital, told The Associated Press that one of the injured was in critical condition.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Houthi supporters chant slogans during an armed tribal rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
People visit a roadside bomb shelter where people were killed during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack along the Israel-Gaza border, as the country marks the third anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Houthi supporters carry their rifles while attending an armed tribal rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
People mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
