BOSTON - Eduardo Rodriguez had been pretty dominant at home over his last three starts going into Friday night's game against the Rays.
"Dominant" is not the word you'd use this time around. "Resourceful" could be one, though it seemed to take Rodriguez a bit of time to dig into his bag of tricks.
On a night where he didn't have command of his fastball - Rodriguez threw just 10 first-pitch strikes to 27 batters - he eventually turned to his changeup to bail him out of trouble.
Rodriguez walked a career-high four batters Friday night while allowing three runs and six hits, but still fought through five innings of work with a career-high 110 pitches.
"When he's not got his best command such as tonight he's still got premium stuff to get guys out even in fastball counts," John Farrell said. "He was behind the count a lot tonight. But when he got back in the strike zone he wasn't down the middle of the plate. He found a way to get through it. He battled. 110 pitches in five innings is an extreme amount but he held his velocity throughout the entire outing for the five outings. The strikeout to end the fifth was probably as good of a pitch as he had thrown all night."
Rodriguez actually struck out the final two batters of his outing with changeup, both swinging. Though he allowed a run in each of the first three innings, that's all the Rays could get to him for. H didn't have his best stuff, but he also didn't get knocked around on the mound like has has in the past.
"He's going to pitch off his fastball, we know that," Farrell said. "And he was able to fight back in the counts just enough to keep from an inning unraveling on him. So it's a pitch he trusts even when he's in a disadvantage count and because of that trust and conviction in it he's able to get some mishits."