Yankees decide on Carlos Rodón as Opening Day starter after Gerrit Cole injury

TAMPA — Carlos Rodón brought up the lasting taste in his mouth and the mouths of his teammates and the team’s fans. 

The most recent memory of baseball being played at Yankee Stadium will be regretted forever. 

“Unfortunately the last game we played there was Game 5 of the World Series, which was also electric [in energy],” Rodón said of the misplay-filled disaster on the sport’s biggest stage. “The outcome was not. But always a great atmosphere.” 

The quest of dispensing mouthwash will begin with Rodón, who earned the title of Opening Day starter on Friday. 

Rodón was not the team’s first choice — Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery will loom over this season and probably some of next — and not quite the second.

Max Fried already had been lined up for the second game of the season, and it would have been “really tough” to overhaul his schedule, manager Aaron Boone said, which would have entailed Fried receiving one fewer spring start and not being fully stretched out.