E-Rod to start, Pivetta in bullpen
Following the best start of his postseason career, Eduardo Rodriguez will get the ball for the Red Sox in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros at Fenway Park on Monday night.
Rodriguez’s last outing was spectacular as the 28year-old left-hander held the Tampa Bay Rays to just three hits over five innings, allowing two runs and striking out six without walking anybody.
Manager Alex Cora said the decision between Rodriguez and right-hander Nick Pivetta was made based on matchups and he thought Rodriguez was better suited to start against the tough Astros lineup. Pivetta will be in the bullpen for the game, but is expected to start Game 4 on Tuesday if he’s not used in relief on Monday.
“If we stay away from Nick, most likely Nick is going to start Game 4, but if we feel like we should use him, we will,” Cora said. “But I think Eddie did a good job in the last one. The first one in Tampa, it was more about where we were bullpen-wise and we took him out very aggressively, of course, with two outs in the second, but I think the last one with command and the stuff, he was really good.”
Current Astros hitters are batting .326 with a .964 OPS off Rodriguez in their careers. Jose Altuve, who is also from Venezuela, is 5-for-13 with a homer off his fellow countryman.
“That’s the little guy of Venezuela, man,” Rodriguez said. “He is just a special player. In 2015 when we played in Houston, that’s the first time I met him. I was with Pablo Sandoval that day, and he called him, and I met him, and after that we have a really good relationship, good friends. We talk every time we play each other, and even in the offseason too. I can’t wait to play in the WBC with him, next time we play together and having him as a teammate.
“He is a tough guy to get out. Really tough guy to get out. I just got to find a way to get him out two or three times tomorrow, and I’m going to be glad with that.”
Openers bad for baseball?
Max Scherzer had interesting comments in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, when he said using openers in the early innings is bad for baseball.
“From a fan’s perspective and baseball as a whole, if you look at it more from the game outside and say, ‘Is this something that … we want the game to go into? Do we want to see this in the regular season?’ my answer is no,” Scherzer told the Times.
Red Sox reliever Adam Ottavino had a different opinion on Monday.
“I like it a lot,” he said. “Teams kind of went to the bullpenning model a couple of years ago, but that was only using relievers. Now Alex (Cora) incorporates the starters into it as well, which I think is great. Those guys are chomping at the bit to impact the games. Pivetta, I always have to tell him, ‘you’re going to get your chance. Don’t worry.’
“I think it’s great. He is mixing and matching. We’re not facing the same hitters over and over and over again. Giving them fresh looks every time is beneficial for us, and one of the strengths of our team is how deep our pitching staff is. There’s a lot of good options, and he is using everybody. I think it’s really good.”
Once an ‘afterthought’
Kiké Hernandez is 0-for-3 lifetime against Ottavino, which made sense considering what Ottavino had to say about Hernandez, who is the hottest hitter on the planet this postseason.
“To be honest, I played against Kiké a long time when he was with the Dodgers, and I was with the Rockies, and I think the Dodgers were always so talented that he was kind of an afterthought for us across the way,” Ottavino said. “But then slowly but surely over the years, I started noticing how good he was and how much better he was getting. …
“Especially defensively I didn’t realize how special he was, and he obviously loves the big moments, and now he has a lot of playoff experience coming into this thing. So he has been a leader for us. You’re always surprised when somebody is this hot, but at the same time I’ve been appreciating his game more and more over the years, and this year he has taken it to another level for sure.”
Field trip
The Sox did not take batting practice on the field Sunday as a large portion of the team went to Gillette Stadium to watch the Cowboys take on the Patriots. Cora said 12 players went to the game.
“This is a fun week sportswise here,” he said. “There’s a few guys that they really took the voluntary workout very voluntary, and they decided to go watch some other sports, and we got the Patriots, we got the Celtics, we got the Bruins, we got us this week, and for a city that enjoys sports and it’s kind of like a perfect one.”