Carlos Rodon’s seven-inning gem propels Yankees past Angels

ANAHEIM, 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 baserunner 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 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.

“He’s been pretty lights out,” said manager Aaron Boone, who described Rodón as a “horse” before the game. “I think it was just another outstanding outing. It’s fun to watch him do it. … They hit a couple balls hard off him in that seventh inning. He didn’t say, ‘I got to do more.’ [He said], ‘I just got to make my pitches here to finish off this outing.’”

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 Yoan Moncada, then a pair of singles to put runners on the corners with one out. One run came into score on a fielder’s choice — with a key defensive play by Anthony Volpe and DJ LeMahieu to get the force out — before Williams got Logan O’Hoppe to pop out on a 3-0 count.

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 last 19 games.

They clinched their seventh straight series victory and will go for the sweep of the Angels (25-29) on Wednesday night.

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.

“I just have a good understanding of what I want to do out there and so do the catchers,” Rodón said. “Defensively we’ve been great. Mostly, it’s just the confidence, the confidence in what I’m doing out there.”

Trent Grisham made a terrific diving catch in the seventh inning but Rodón was also part of the defensive gem.

With two outs in the fourth inning, 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.

“I’ll probably feel that tomorrow after the jump,” Rodón said with a chuckle.

The dugout went wild in response and Rodón got some extra love from his teammates after he slowly walked off the field.

“I didn’t see that one coming, to be honest with you,” LeMahieu said. “He’s an athletic guy though, so it was pretty impressive. … I think guys were pretty fired up. Volpe called him lefty Jeter, so it just capped off a great night for him.”

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 Adell’s two-out double, which prompted Boone’s quick mound visit.

“I wanted to stay with him,” Boone said. “But I wanted to get a feel from him where he’s at, maybe give him a breather. But I felt pretty convicted that he had at least one more hitter there.”