There wasn’t much that went right for the Red Sox Monday, as they fell to the Astros 11-2 in an embarrassing performance.
Eduardo Rodriguez went just two outs into the fifth, letting up six earned to his name finishing May with an ERA of 7.22. It’s been a frustrating month for the lefty, Alex Cora still has a lot of faith in him.
“I told him (Rodriguez) that if he throws the ball the way he did today with one more adjustment, we’re in a good place,” said Cora, who returned to Houston for the first time since he was caught being a part of the Astros sign-stealing scandal. “I honestly feel like stuff-wise, the cutter was the one we were looking for. We still don’t have the sinker where we want it, but the four-seamer was good.”
“I do believe that if we can get the changeup where we want it we’ll be good,” Cora later added.
The Red Sox were 4-0 when Rodriguez started in April, but were 1-5 when Rodriguez started in May. He has only allowed less than four runs once during May in his six starts. That came in his only good start of the month, where he allowed just a run through five frames versus the O’s back on May 7th.
“You got to take the positives and you got to work on the negatives,” said Cora. “He made some strides compared to the last one (start). It’s 30 starts – he’ll get 30 starts. He’s healthy – you saw the stuff – he maintained his stuff throughout the outing.”
“It’s just: keep working – keep getting better,” later said Cora. “He did that in ’19, when he was on top of the world, and he’s doing that right now.”
E-Rod’s next start is most likely going to be Saturday, June 5th versus the Yankees. Eovaldi is scheduled for the day before on Friday, but the Red Sox have not scheduled anyone past that date.
The Red Sox look to rebound Tuesday night in game two of the series versus the Astros.