On the same day that manager Torey Lovullo called the entire starting rotation into his office to tell them they needed to pick up the pace, Dbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez did just that and then some. ERod put this team on his back tonight shutting down the Pirates offense taking some of the pressure off his team and allowing them to get back to .500 on Cinco de Mayo as they beat the Pirates 9-0.
Eduardo Rodriguez was commanding all of his pitches to all parts of the zone today. His final line was 7
innings pitched, allowing only 2 hits, while walking 3, and striking out 7. Early in the game he did a great job of getting some strikeouts on the curveball low in the zone. The curve is a pitch that ERod has not used much historically but tonight it was critical. That low curveball opened up the top of the zone for his fastball later in the game which generated a 47% whiff rate striking out 4 Pirates hitters. In the words of Jim McLennan earlier on twitter, only 2 AZ pitchers this year have thrown 7 shutout innings and Eduardo Rodriguez is both of them. Tonight’s outing lowered ERod’s season ERA down to 2.50, far and away the best of the starting rotation and I don’t even have to check.
The Dbacks offense got off to a great start in this one pushing across 2 runs in the first inning also pushing Pirates starter Bubba Chandler to 38 pitches. The Pirates actually had their bullpen up in the first and would’ve likely pulled Chandler had 1 more batter reached in the inning. Rather than continue to focus on getting the Pirates starter out of the game, the Arizona offense would proceed to have the next 7 batters get retired in order. This game was looking like it was going to be closer as the offense failed to record a hit in innings 2-5, however their patient approach would pay off in the 6th inning as they sent 9 men to the plate and scored 5 runs blowing the game open.
The offense did do a much better job tonight staying patient at the plate walking 7 times creating a lot of base traffic and setting up some timely hits. Certainly a positive sign for an offense that has been perhaps overly aggressive in recent weeks. The most timely of the hits were a pair of doubles in the 6th inning by Gabi Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo. It was also great to see some of Ketel Marte’s early season tough like start to dissipate tonight as he hit a triple, a single, scored 2 runs, and 2 RBI. Tonight was a good example of what this offense can do when they take their walks and cut down on the chase.
This was only the 2nd win of 5 or more runs this season. Certainly a welcome beginning of the homestand for a team that has played so many high leverage close games. All eyes will be on Michael Soroka tomorrow night as he faces Paul Skenes. If Soroka can get back to the form he showed earlier in the season and keep this momentum rolling in the starting rotation, that could be a big boost for this team. Perhaps we will be able to look back on today as the day the starting rotation got back on track following a timely group meeting? Let’s hope!
