For six years in Boston, Eduardo Rodriguez flashed the kind of potential that made talent evaluators drool.
He had his moments. He had his seasons. He won a World Series. But it’d be hard to argue he ever reached his potential.
When it came time to pay him or let him walk, the Sox said goodbye to their young lefty and watched him sign a five-year, $77 million deal with the Detroit Tigers.
On Wednesday, letting him walk looked like the right decision.
The Red Sox rocked Rodriguez for seven runs (two earned) as they rolled the Tigers in a weird 9-7 win at Comerica Park.
They’ll leave Detroit having won two of three from the Tigers and enter their off-day with a 3-3 record as they prepare for opening day at Fenway Park on Friday against the Twins.
Facing his former team for the first time, Rodriguez could be seen joking around with Nathan Eovaldi during pregame warm-ups. He was also sporting Barry Bonds earrings (dangling cross) in both ears, though he usually wasn’t allowed to wear them while in Boston.
For three innings, Rodriguez got the better of his old team and looked as impressive as ever, flashing his mid-90s fastball, mixing it with a sinker, painting the black with his signature backdoor cutter and then finishing with a wipeout change-up.
Then it happened. When the going got tough, Rodriguez crumbled.
Kiké Hernandez homered off him in the third. And in the fourth, the Sox used a walk, a single, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly to score another. Then Tigers’ third baseman Jeimer Candelario made a throwing error and Rodriguez looked lost.
He served up three straight doubles to Jackie Bradley Jr., Hernandez and Rafael Devers to end his day.
It was the first time since Sept. 24, 2019 that Rodriguez had allowed seven runs in a game, albeit just two of them being earned due to the Candelario error.
On the other side, Eovaldi wasn’t perfect but pushed through a couple mistakes to go five innings while allowing two runs on a pair of solo shots and striking out seven.
After throwing just 76 pitches on opening day, Eovaldi went 101 pitches in this one as manager Alex Cora tried to preserve his bullpen.
Former closer Matt Barnes handled the sixth inning cleanly, despite averaging just 94 mph on his fastball, down 2 mph from last year. He actually threw more curveballs (six) than fastballs (five), which might be necessary as he works to regain arm strength following a short spring training.
But the Sox’ bullpen fell apart in the seventh and eighth innings, when Austin Davis and Kutter Crawford combined to allow five runs, all earned, off some hard contact from a weak Tigers’ lineup that did not include Javier Baez nor Miguel Cabrera.
After an impressive save in New York on Sunday night, Jake Diekman entered in the eighth and tried to limit the damage, though an inherited runner scored on his watch.
Hansel Robles handled the ninth for the save and the Sox escaped with the win.
It was a team effort from the Sox offense, which was fueled by two more hits from Hernandez in the leadoff spot. Bradley had a pair of hits and three RBIs from the nine-hole, while Trevor Story returned to the lineup and collected his first RBI in a Red Sox uniform.
