Rodriguez continues road back
Lefty moving toward return to Red Sox
PAWTUCKET – At the end of the day, the health of Eduardo Rodriguez’s right knee will indicate whether the lefthander can work explosively and aggressively through the strike zone.
“We’re seeing a guy who’s moving in the right direction in that area,” said Paw Sox pitching coach Bob Kipper the day after Rodriguez began his second rehab stint with seven innings of one-run ball.
That direction is generally where you’ll find a pitcher as he nears the completion of spring training, a luxury that Rodriguez was not afforded after injuring himself in late February.
In essence, his rehab time with the Paw Sox should be chalked up to a month-long progression that typically takes place during Grapefruit League play.
For all of the nitpicking that’s been done about Rodriguez’s fastball lacking the zip that became his trademark during his rookie season, it bears repeating once again: the southpaw is looking to make up for lost time.
There’s no such thing as a perfect pitcher during spring training. It’s about making strides that ensure that the regular-season call will be answered once it’s officially go time.
In the eyes of Kipper and Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles, Rodriguez is in a much better place today than he was in April 28 outing, which featured a 3.2-inning stint at Syracuse. On Tuesday night, Rodriguez turned in seven innings of one-run ball. He walked no one and struck out seven.
That’s called progress in the right direction. His most recent appearance was his fifth start with the Paw Sox. For comparison purposes, Joe Kelly made six starts in spring training.
“Nobody is surprised that he’s getting more and more comfortable. Obviously that speaks to the health of his knee,” said Kipper. “I see a guy who’s looking more like Eddie Rodriguez and that’s definitely a really big positive for him and the organization.”
The 102 pitches that Rodriguez threw against the Iron Pigs featured plenty of interesting subplots.
On the cutter front, Rodriguez threw 20 such pitches. That represents a huge step forward considering that it was introduced late last season after Rodriguez had a meeting with Red Sox pitching coach Carl Willis and Kipper, who at the time was serving as Boston’s bullpen coach.
“Eddie has incredibly strong hands. There’s probably not a whole lot of things that he couldn’t do with a baseball, but I was surprised how quickly he was able to pick up the cutter,” said Kipper. “With anything, the challenge is finding the value of the pitch. When can I use it? How can it assert my game? How could it add another dimension and add to the idea of pitching unpredictability?”
Originally, Rodriguez was supposed to throw between 90-100 pitches on Tuesday. The fact that he got through seven innings showed an upward tick in stamina – his previous best was six innings against Lehigh Valley on May 3.
Rodriguez was forced to engage in a 10-pitch confrontation with Lehigh Valley’s Cedric Hunter before getting him to swing at strike three. Hunter’s punchout was part of a “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out” double play that ended the seventh inning.
“It was a higher level of conditioning than what we’ve seen,” said Boles. “To be able to finish off that inning was huge.”
Tuesday also marked the unveiling of Rodriguez’s revamped delivery. It was something that was implemented last week after the Red Sox fitted Rodriguez with a brace.
“Just from seeing it the first time, he was able to maintain a pretty nice pace. It looks like the delivery is a little more simplified,” said Boles. “Those adjustments that were made at the bigleague level … for him to be able to put them in right away is not an easy thing to do. It was interesting that he was able to repeat it more times than not. Even if you simplify the delivery or make adjustments, you don’t know how he’s going to take to it, but he did a nice job (Tuesday against Lehigh Valley).”
Getting off the mound to cover first base wasn’t a problem for Rodriguez on Tuesday. On three occasions, he scampered over to the bag in the event Paw Sox first baseman Sam Travis needed assistance.
“He was able to get off the mound and field his position as far as getting over to the right side of the diamond. He’s been pretty guarded with that,” said Boles. “That’s a positive sign if he can keep that up.”
Everything else that Rodriguez throws in his expanded repertoire is going work off his bread-and-butter offering. How he goes about restoring the velocity to his fastball should be viewed as the last hurdle he needs to cross in his quest to join Boston’s starting rotation.
With that mind, let’s remember that Rodriguez is still in spring-training mode. He’s tentatively scheduled to start for the Paw Sox on Sunday night.
“The velocity will come back. There’s no doubt about that,” said Boles.