The Red Sox seem to have avoided a scare with Eduardo Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was removed in the second inning of Friday’s 6-2 win over the Yankees with migraine symptoms. The Red Sox left-hander had just given an RBI double to Brett Gardner that gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead when he signaled to the dugout and crouched over on his way back to the mound. While surrounded by his teammates, manager Alex Cora, pitching coach Dave Bush and the training staff quickly came on to tend to Rodriguez before he walked off the field moments later.
Cora had noticed that Rodriguez didn’t seem right before he went out for the second inning.
“He was having trouble concentrating,” Cora said. “I saw him in the dugout. He’s usually very talkative, walking around the dugout and he was in the corner of the dugout not talking to people, and that happens. Hopefully this is something that we can contain. Hopefully he doesn’t miss a start, so we’ll see.”
Phillips Valdez, who was just called up from Triple-A Worcester, took over in relief. He was dominant in three innings of relief, striking out seven Yankees, to lead a clutch performance by the Red Sox bullpen, which nearly blanked the Yankees for the rest of the game before Brandon Workman gave up a run in the ninth.
But there was obvious concern for Rodriguez, who missed the 2020 season due to myocarditis, a complication from COVID-19. He has largely stayed healthy in his return to the mound this season after only missing his first start of the season due to a dead arm he experienced in spring training.
Cora wasn’t sure what was going on with Rodriguez after the way he saw catcher Christian Vazquez react to his pitcher having trouble. The manager didn’t rule out Rodriguez missing a start as they continue to stay cautious with him.
“I went out there and talked to him and he was telling me how he felt, what was going on,” Cora said. “(I said), ‘Take a deep breath and we’ll take you out of the game.’ That’s what we do. You have to take care of players. That’s the most important thing. Now we just have to see how he reacts tonight, how he feels tomorrow and we go from there. If he has to miss a start, he misses it. It’s like, he didn’t pitch last year with a heart problem, so we have to be very careful with him.”
