Red Sox: Great Eduardo Rodriguez start tops rehab trio with PawSox
By Rick McNair
The Boston Red Sox pitching staff is ready to get Eduardo Rodriguez back after his final and very impressive start with Pawtucket. For Pablo Sandoval and Brock Holt the wait may be longer.
The Boston Red Sox had three players in rehab during Sunday’s game between Pawtucket and Buffalo. Let’s take a quick look at how Brock Holt, Pablo Sandoval, and Eduardo Rodriguez are progressing or not progressing.
The latest injury to Rodriguez is his knee, or as Howard Cosell use to say: “It’s always the knee” when a football player limped or was carried off the field. For Rodriguez, the latest happened (supposedly) while warming up for a game. When Rodriguez faced off against Baltimore he allowed seven earned runs in 5.2 innings and limped to the disabled list.
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Rodriguez was clearly a solid performer for the Red Sox. In ten starts his 3.60 ERA and 4-2 record spells out some of it, but the team also went 7-3 in his starts – seven of which were quality starts. The road to recovery in Portland and Pawtucket did not leave any surge of confidence until today against Buffalo.
The statistical line is impressive and what jumps out in 6.1 innings of pitching is zero walks. E-Rod also struck out seven, allowed one earned run, six scattered hits, and 95 pitches. In his previous rehab start with the PawSox, Rodriguez walked five in four innings and was touched for four earned runs.
With a double-header facing Boston this coming Sunday they will need a six-man rotation and that means Rodriguez is back in the fold and Doug Fister – last seen being beaten to a pitching pulp – will get one more starting shot.
Sandoval went on the disabled list with what was described as an ear infection. As a father of six children I periodically faced this situation as especially younger children are prone to such miseries, but the recovery is fairly quick. This leads me to believe that a bit of the famous “Hellenic Flu” was in operation by the Red Sox.
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It is not exactly a state secret that the Red Sox have no real desire to deal with the Sandoval situation. Panda has spent almost as much time with Pawtucket rehabs as patrolling third base in Boston. That – at least for almost all Red Sox Nation – is a good thing. Eventually, the Red Sox will have to face reality and union issues and just do something with Sandoval.
Sunday Sandoval was the designated hitter. The day went as a typical Sandoval day goes with a walk, strikeout and a zero for three afternoon. For his Pawtucket days – this is his second trip down I-95 – Sandoval is hitting an anemic .224.
Holt is facing a career ending challenge with vertigo. My first encounter with vertigo was the great Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name starring Jimmy Stewart. Holt has been off and on in the rehab process for the season spending playing time with Portland and currently Pawtucket.
Holt has also spent time traveling with the Red Sox and no doubt receiving treatments that seem to center around rest and possible medication intervention. The injury to Holt and poor performance by Sandoval have certainly contributed to the well noted third base issue.
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In today’s game, Holt went 1-for-4 with a single while playing third base for the PawSox. For Pawtucket, Holt is hitting .233 and – as with Sandoval – no timetable exists for his return.