When it comes to Eduardo Rodriguez, the Boston Red Sox are calling it how they see it. So by all accounts (but his own), the lefty is their ace.
Naturally, after the team split its series with the Seattle Mariners and watched the No. 1 guy in the rotation improve to a perfect 4-0 in his starts this season, that term was being thrown around a bit by manager Alex Cora and catcher Christian Vazquez.
In his own postgame press conference, Rodriguez was a little more bashful than that.
"I mean, I don't call myself an ace, you know, I just go out there and pitch all the time," Rodriguez said. "That's it, I don't call it like that."
The mentality is honorable, sure, but it's tough to imagine anyone else being referred to as Boston's ace right now despite having a strong starting rotation. Chris Sale is headed down to Florida for the next step of his rehabilitation from last year's Tommy John surgery.
Rodriguez missed all of last season with complications due to COVID-19, and still has managed to resume his role as their go-to guy.
"I mean, he was in the second half of the season in '19, right? When everybody went down," Cora said after the 5-3 win over the Mariners, insisting Rodriguez stepped up as the team's ace even before missing a season. "He just kept giving us innings and going deep into ball games. I remember, it seemed like whenever he pitched, we would come from a bullpen game, so we had not too many arms in the bullpen and he was at 115 pitches, just grinding it out. And he did an amazing job, he grew up. And, you know, (it's) too bad obviously with the virus and everything that happened last year he wasn't able to perform, but coming into the season, I knew that he was in a good spot."
To say the least.
The Red Sox have won 80.3% of their games since the start of 2018 with Rodriguez on the mound, and are 18-3 in his last 21 outings. But he credits the offense more for that success rate.
"I know they're gonna score runs," Rodriguez said. "I mean (it) from the bottom of my heart, that they're going to score runs. Every time we play, we've got to think like that all the time, and I'm enjoying it every time I go out there and I see they put runs up there on the board all the time."
That was the case Sunday, even if most runs came by virtue of patient bats. But ultimately, Rodriguez went deep into the game yet again and worked through a few bumps.
Rodriguez gave up back-to-back doubles in the first inning, allowing one run to score, but settled into his game and managed to work through a hairy fifth that saw two Mariners runs.
He ultimately went seven innings while allowing three earned runs off six hits. He threw 71 of his 98 pitches for strikes, and did not issue a single walk while striking out eight batters.
"He's a pitcher, he's not a thrower now," Vazquez said Sunday after catching Rodriguez over the years. "He dots everything."
Rodriguez credits veteran members the Red Sox pitching staff, past and present, for helping him understand there's a lot of room for error when you're only throwing for power and not locating your pitches.
And after a year off, it's understandable the velocity isn't consistently up there. Rodriguez feels like he's putting the ball anywhere he wants.
"Every time I go out there, I feel like I'm all the way back," Rodriguez said. "Today was just one of those days as you don't feel that much power on your fastball, but the command was there and it was great to have it."
