Eduardo Rodriguez is going through it.
The Red Sox left-hander was tabbed with a loss in each of his last four starts. Rodriguez put forth his worst outing of the season thus far Monday when he allowed six runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings in Boston's 11-2 loss in Houston. He now owns a 5.64 ERA on the campaign after a very solid four-start stretch in April.
Given how impressive Rodriguez looked to start the season, it's only natural for Red Sox fans and media members alike to wonder what might be contributing to the southpaw's recent woes. An easy potential reason to point to is Rodriguez being out of action for the entire 2020 campaign.
But the 28-year-old isn't interested in leaning on that excuse, or any other for that matter.
"I don't think this has anything to do with missing last year, man," Rodriguez told reporters after Monday's game, per MLB.com. "It's just about location right now. I have 10 starts already in the season. I'm not going to blame that (on missing) last year. That's something that I've just got to go to the bullpen and work on.
"I can't blame any more that, 'Oh, I missed last year.' No. That can't happen anymore. It's just part of the process of going out there every five days. You've got to figure out a way to go on to the next one and have a good result."
Rodriguez currently is slated to return to the hill Sunday night when the Red Sox wrap up their three-game series with the Yankees in New York.