Baltimore Orioles to Face Eduardo Rodriguez
The Baltimore Orioles will tonight be facing their former farmhand in Eduardo Rodriguez in the second of four games with the Boston Red Sox.
The Memorial Day series opener was not a great day for the O’s. It is difficult to win a game when your top five batters go 0-for-17. The next four registered a single hit each. Knuckleballers are going to be a problem for a team like Baltimore.
The good news from the game was that Tyler Wilson threw another respectable outing, giving up three runs in 6.2 innings. Though his record is just 2-4, he has a 3.83 ERA and is indeed learning on the job with each game logged.
To give a perspective on the ERA, we all know that today’s Sox starter Rodriguez had a fine rookie season with Boston last year. His ERA in 21 starts? 3.85… and with a 10-6 record. He is making his first MLB start of 2016, having been out with a knee injury. After five rehab starts with their AAA affiliate – the most recent being seven innings with a run on four hits – he is deemed ready to go.
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Looking to today’s game, Kevin Gausman will attempt to slow down the Boston offense. This pitching matchup has happened before. On September 14th of 2015, the two faced off. And though Rodriguez only gave up a single run to the Orioles, Gausman threw six shutout innings in what was a final score of 2-0.
Rodriguez has twice before that September game also pitched against the O’s. His first outing (third of his career, almost a year ago) was a good one with six shutout innings. However, a quartet of Baltimore pitchers shutout Boston for the entire game in a 1-0 victory.
Two weeks later, the Orioles lit him up for six runs in 3.2 innings in a game where the O’s would prevail 8-6.
With the lefty going against the Birds, I would expect that we will see Nolan Reimold in left field and Joey Rickard in right. Reimold had the only big hit yesterday – a triple – along with two walks. He needs to play!
If Gallardo is indeed to make a rehab start in Frederick as speculated on Thursday night, I might make the short trip down the road to see it. But better than that is that this is “Bark in the Park Night” and I can take my dog with me. Nothing like a ballgame with your best friend.