Diamondbacks’ Eduardo Rodriguez finishes strong in home debut vs. Rockies

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez threw five innings with three earned runs during his first home game at Chase Field in a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.

Rodriguez — who missed the first four months with shoulder issues — allowed six hits, one walk and struck out five batters in his second start of the season. He made 83 pitches, up from 65 in his D-backs debut last week against the Cleveland Guardians.

After a rocky third inning, Rodriguez closed out his night on a high note. He retired the final seven batters he faced and walked off the mound with his team in striking distance, trailing 3-2.

Arizona’s bullpen threw four scoreless innings and set the offense up for a walk-off win courtesy of Jake McCarthy. The D-backs won their fifth straight game and captured a ninth consecutive series.

“The second and third innings were a little shaky, too many changeups and they had a good approach,” Rodriguez said. “After that, I feel like I settled down in the fourth and fifth innings … The rest of the pitching staff did great and we scored a run to win the game, so that was great.”

Rodriguez breezed through the first inning on seven pitches — helped out by a McCarthy diving catch.

FULL EXTENSION FROM JAKE. pic.twitter.com/ue3NXEoHoy

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 14, 2024

The next two were more of a grind, taking 49 pitches to plow through the second and third frames with all three runs allowed. Colorado racked up two runs on four hits in the third inning.

Rodriguez settled in for a pair of 1-2-3 frames to end his outing. He did not give up much hard contact, as the Rockies only hit four balls over 95 mph off the bat. Most of their knocks came on pitches out of the zone or on the black.

“Next time we’re going to push him up into that mid 90-pitch range and give him an opportunity to get a quality start out of something like what we saw today,” manager Torey Lovullo said.

Dylan Floro, Kevin Ginkel, Paul Sewald and Joe Mantiply shut the Rockies down with no hits allowed out of the bullpen.

“They absolutely dealt,” Lovullo said. “Without them, we do not win this game.”

Chase Field had an announced attendance of 19,731 for Rodriguez’s first home game.

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