NEW YORK – The night before the biggest start of his career, Carlos Rodón was a sea monster.

There was a new toy in the Rodón household: a tent-sized fabric submarine playhouse. Carlos' wife Ashley had purchased the thing. Carlos had built it. A dream for small children. That evening, the two older Rodón children, Willow (5) and Bo (3), insisted that Dad play the role of the sea monster. He obeyed happily.

But Rodón hasn't completely cut himself off from the grid. He watched film and read through some scouting reports, although preparation didn't take up his evening.

Later that night, while his children were long asleep, Rodón sat down at his desk to jot down a few last-minute notes for the upcoming launch. The game plan had been set for a long time, and Rodón planned to bring the notes to the court on Monday as additional information. At the top of a blank sheet of paper, he scribbled “KWAN,” the name of Cleveland's dynamic leadoff hitter. But instead of writing down his various thoughts or a plan of attack, Rodón paused.

He crumpled up the paper and threw it away.

Less than 24 hours later, Rodón delivered a triumphant performance in New York's 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the ALCS. He tallied a whopping 25 swing-and-misses, the most ever by a Yankees pitcher in a home playoff game. The southpaw went six innings, striking out nine and allowing just one run.

Juan Soto hit a solo shot in the third, his first home run of the October. Taking advantage of a series of walks and wild pitches from the Guardians, the Yankees scored three more early runs. Cleveland managed to get the game back to within three points late, but New York's breakout star in October, closer Luke Weaver, slammed the door with a five-out save.

The home crowd, which at times included Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, went home happy. The Yankees, favored on both paper and payroll in this ALCS, began the series with an encouraging, if not exactly dominant, win.

Rodón – more specifically, his dramatic change in behavior from the start – was the story of the evening.

His performance was cast in the inevitable shadow of his last start, a disastrous implosion in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Kansas City Royals. In his first postseason start as a Yankee, Rodón appeared distraught and exhausted by the weight of it all. He gave up four runs while recording just 11 outs.

He got off to a great start that night, striking out the team in an electric first inning and gesticulating wildly after each punchout, reflecting the unbridled energy emanating from the Yankee Stadium crowd.

It was exciting. It was also temporary.

When Salvador Pérez led off the fourth inning with a game-winning solo home run, Rodón was thrown off guard. His command and attitude failed him. Five batters and three baserunners later, he was out of the game and stuck on the bench. Rodón shook his head back and forth in a mixture of disappointment and disgust like the pendulum of a dilapidated grandfather clock.

In his first real appearance on the big stage, Rodón had failed spectacularly – going from untouchable to uncomfortable. The appearance led to public deliberation about whether the hurler's temperament on the mound was too volatile for him to host the biggest games for the sport's biggest team. Signed in December 2022 for six years and $162 million, Rodón was brought into the starting lineup for Game 2, but failed in his first opportunity against Kansas City.

That narrative dominated the lead-up to his start in ALCS Game 1. In his pregame media conference, Rodón parried question after question – all valid given his previous performance – about how he wanted to better control his emotions. He talked about staying focused and channeling his energy productively. He mentioned that he closely watched Gerrit Cole's highlight reel in ALDS Game 4, paying particular attention to Cole's icy stare as he left the mound.

Whatever Rodón did between starts, the result was completely different.

On Monday, he finished an inning with a strikeout five times. Not once did the expressive hurler break out like he did in the ALDS. He was professional, assertive and in control. He was in command – both of the game and of his emotions. Rodón avoided peaks and valleys. The Guardians managed just three hits against him: a single in each of the first two frames and a solo home run by Brayan Rocchio in the sixth. Pitching with a lead certainly helped Rodón, who leaned on his fastball early and often.

Alex Cobb, whose career numbers against Soto would make a statue blush, coughed up the game's first run with a solo shot from the swashbuckling slugger. After missing deep and inside with two sinkers, Cobb tried to get one under Soto's hands. The pitch ran back across the middle of the plate and Soto uncoiled, sending the bad baseball racing through a strong wind into the Yankees' bullpen for a 1-0 lead.

From there, Cobb broke away and accompanied a trio of Yankees to load the bases. That was the end of his night, but rookie Joey Cantillo kept the Wild going. The left-hander finished the frame, but not before another walk and two run-scoring wild pitches. From there, New York's offense largely threw it into cruise control mode. A 439-foot sonic boom courtesy of Giancarlo Stanton in the seventh provided some cushion and a stadium full of dropped jaws. The Yankees withstood a Cleveland rally in the eighth inning to give Rodón the first postseason win of his career.

It was an encouraging evening for the sturdy left-hander, although he opted to remain calm during his post-match media conference. Rodón knows that the journey is far from over, that his story as a Yankee is far from written.

A spectacular performance alone cannot silence the whispers – not in a city so demanding and whose memory is so short. There will be more opportunities for glory or darkness. A stinker in his next start, be it Game 5 or the World Series, would revert Rodón from hero to villain in an instant. Such is life in the late-season pressure cooker.

But Rodón's commanding performance in Game 2 was clear evidence of why The Team paid The Man.

The sea monster is in there. He just has to tame it.