On the same day that head coach Torey Lovullo called the entire starting lineup into his office and told them they needed to pick up the pace, Dbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez did just that and then some. ERod put this team on his shoulders tonight, shutting down the Buccaneers’ offense, taking some of the pressure off the team and allowing them to get back to .500 in a 9-0 win over the Buccaneers on Cinco de Mayo.
Eduardo Rodriguez commanded all pitches in all areas of the zone today. He last pitched 7 innings, allowing just 2 hits, walking 3, and striking out 7. He got a few strikeouts early in the game on a curve ball down low in the zone. This curve is a rarely used tone in ERod history, but tonight it was key. Late in the game, the low curveball opened up the top of the zone for his fastball, which produced a 47% error rate and struck out four Pirates batters. To paraphrase Jim McLennan’s earlier tweet, only two AZ Alkmaar pitchers have thrown seven scoreless innings this year, and Eduardo Rodriguez is one of them. Tonight’s game lowered ERod’s season ERA to 2.50, easily the best in the starting rotation and I don’t even need to check.
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The Dbacks’ offense got off to a great start, scoring two runs in the first inning and holding Pirates starter Bubba Chandler to 38. In fact, the Pirates had the bullpen loaded in the first inning, and if Chandler had pitched one more batter in the inning, they likely would have tied the game. Instead of continuing to focus on retiring the Pirates starters from the game, the Arizona offense will continue to retire the next seven batters in order. The game looked to be closer as the offense failed to score a hit in innings 2-5, but their patient approach paid off in the 6thth In the first inning, they sent 9 men to the plate and scored 5 points to kick off the game.
The offense really did a better job tonight, staying patient at the plate, walking 7 times, generating plenty of base traffic and setting up some timely hits. That’s certainly a positive sign for an offense that may have been too aggressive in recent weeks. The most timely hits were a pair of doubles in the sixth inningth Game 1 for Gabby Moreno and Gerardo Perdomo. It was good to see that some of Kotel Marte’s rough start to the season went away tonight as he had a triple, a run, two runs scored and two RBIs. Tonight was a great example of what this offense can do when they walk and cut back on the chase.
it’s just 2ND Achieve 5 or more wins this season. A homestand is certainly a welcome start for a team that has played so many high-leverage close games. Tomorrow night, all eyes will be on Michael Soroka as he takes on Paul Skenes. If Soroka can get back to his early-season form and keep that momentum going in the starting rotation, it could be a huge boost for this team. Maybe we can look back on today as the starting rotation is back on track after a timely group meeting? Let’s look forward to it!