BOSTON - The timing seemed a bit ironic.
On a night when Eduardo Rodriguez, perhaps one of Ben Cherington's best acquisitions as GM of the Red Sox, was dealing on the mound, Cherington was stepping down from his position.
As it turns out, the trade made for Rodriguez at last year's trade deadline was not enough to make up for the other trades and signings that have the Red Sox heading to their second straight last place finish in the A.L. East, and third in four years.
But there was Rodriguez, mowing down Cleveland Indians batters left and right, retiring the first 10 batters he faced, five by strikeout.
The one mistake made was a slider that caught too much of the plate in the 7th inning that Michael Brantley hit over the right-field wall.
Other than that, Rodriguez was on point, lasting a career-high 8.0 innings and allowing just six hits without walking a batter. The Red Sox won, 9-1, have won his last five starts at Fenway Park, and are now 9-6 overall in games he starts.
"I think he was pounding the strike zone with an aggressive fastball, getting ahead of hitters," Torey Lovulo said. "There's no secret to having success on a given night from a pitching standpoint. It's getting ahead of the batter and staying in the strike zone. He got in a great run for several innings. He was comfortable, free and easy. His worst inning he threw 19 pitches prior to the eighth inning. We wanted to send him back out there and get the last inning he really deserved. A great effort by him tonight."
Since 1979, the only other Red Sox rookies to allow six or fewer hits without walking a batter in at least 8.0 innings are Roger Clemens (Jun. 22, 1984 vs. Toronto) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (May 14, 2007 vs. Detroit).
Dave Dombrowski may have a lot of cleaning up to do thanks to Cherington, but he's got to at least feel good about Rodriguez going forward.