Eduardo Rodriguez came to play during Game 4 of the American League Division Series.
Rodriguez battled all the way through a 17-pitch at-bat to strike out Tampa Bay Rays left fielder Austin Meadows for the first out of the third inning. According to MLB, it’s the longest postseason at-bat since 1988, when pitch counts were first tracked.
Meadows fouled off three straight pitches to start the at-bat, then Rodriguez fired off three balls, but he wasn’t going down easily. After 10 more foul balls, Rodriguez caught him swinging on an 81.7 mph slider.
Check out this visualization of the at-bat from Baseball Savant:
And of course, it’s even more fun to see it on video:
It was Rodriguez’s fifth strikeout of the night.
Rodriguez got some run support in the bottom half of the third inning as the Red Sox offense scored five runs on six hits.
