Jays’ Rodriguez shows little bit of everything as winning streak snapped

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Published Aug 27, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Danny Jansen of the Boston Red Sox tags out Joey Loperfido of the Blue Jays at Fenway Park on August 27, 2024 in Boston. Photo by Paul Rutherford /Getty Images

Yariel Rodriguez is one of those players who is going to tax the Blue Jays braintrust over the remaining month and a bit of the season.

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Rodriguez at times looks like a guy who is going to consistently give Major League hitters fits.

He’ll go long stretches without giving up a hit, then all of a sudden, either lose the zone or hitters become very comfortable and the hits start piling up.

Examples of both were on the Rodriguez agenda last night in the Jays’ 6-3 loss that snapped their five-game winning streak.

Rodriguez came out of the dugout looking like he was in for a long night, giving up a lead-off homer to Jarren Duran and two more runs in the first before getting out of the inning.

Now, there’s no shame in getting beaten up by Duran, who has been doing that to a lot of pitchers this year, but the add-on runs in the inning were avoidable had Rodriguez been on his game.

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Credit the native of Camaguey, Cuba, for rebounding after that tough start. He cruised through the second, third and fourth innings looking much more like the pitcher who was so stingy in the month of July when he held opponents to a .132 batting average.

The fifth, though, was a repeat of the first in many respects, starting with the three runs the Red Sox tagged on to further separate themselves from the Jays.

A lead-off double by Ceddanne Rafaela, one of the free-est swingers in the game today, was a bad start. Rodriguez was in the strike zone throughout the at-bat for a guy who is well-known to chase.

Three more base hits in the inning by the Red Sox continued a trend in which the opposing teams seemed to lock in on Rodriguez his third time through the order.

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That was all for Rodriguez, who would suffer his third consecutive loss and sixth of the year against a lone win.

But that one win is misleading, given Rodriguez had a four-game stretch of starts against Houston, Seattle, Arizona and Tampa Bay in which he allowed a total of five runs and somehow came away with just one win.

The team also needs to take into consideration that Rodriguez missed all of last season with injury and had two separate stints on the injured list this year with back issues.

All that said, Rodriguez at times looks like the real deal. Right now, he’s just not consistent enough, and the Jays evaluators need to determine whether that’s a product of not being physically at his peak or if that’s just part of his makeup.

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If it’s the former, Rodriguez will probably start next year in the rotation given what the team currently possesses. If it’s the latter, the chances of that are much less likely.

Rodriguez didn’t get a lot of help from his offence last night. While the Jays hit the Red Sox pretty hard, they managed to run into outs on the basepaths four different times, twice at the plate.

Despite 11 hits and some questionable base-running, the Jays still managed to leave nine runners on base.

A high point was the night at the dish enjoyed by rookie Will Wagner. Wagner had a pair of doubles and his first homer. Dalton Varsho also homered in the ninth to get the Jays to within three.

HE’S BACK — TEMPORARILY

Shortstop Bo Bichette joined the Blue Jays in Boston on Tuesday. The expectation is he will meet with the team doctors and get a once-over before going out on a rehab assignment in advance of his return to the Jays lineup.

Bichette is the great unknown as the Jays assess their future. While an extension for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seems likely, given the chatter from both sides, the same cannot be said for a Bichette return beyond this season, though nothing has been decided.

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