With the last pitch of his six-inning job on Monday, left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez forced Carlos Correa to grounder for a second.
And as he walked from the mound to the cave, the Red Sox starter from Carabobo gestured toward the visitors’ cave. With his right hand he squeezed his left wrist, as if to say that he “tied up” the always dangerous Puerto Rican slugger, who celebrated in a similar way after deciding with a home run in the first game.
Just seconds after the E-Rod celebration, reactions exploded on social media. “I let him know we don’t have to do that,” said manager Alex Cora. “Do not do that. We don’t have to do that and he understands. I’m not mad at him. We talk about playing with a humble mindset. We like to fight, we like to play. But we don’t do that. “
“It was something that was part of the moment,” Rodríguez said to the mlb.com portal. “I feel bad and I will even apologize to Correa when I see him.”
With Rodriguez’s 6.0 innings and Boston’s 12 runs of offense, the Red Sox didn’t have to go to their main relievers.
“Like my last start, I had very good control of the fastball,” Rodriguez said. “Whenever that works I can comfortably use the rest of the arsenal.”
Yes, there was speed and command. Rodriguez’s fastball was consistently between 92 and 95 miles per hour. In fact, a 95.8 mph fastball in the first inning was his hardest shot on record in 2021. In terms of control, 65 of his 97 pitches were strikes. He struck out seven and did not walk.
