It wasn’t the greatest rehab outing for Yariel Rodríguez.
The 27-year-old made what will most likely be his final rehab appearance for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, finishing with a line of 3 IP+, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K to bring his season ERA at Triple-A to 1.33. In total, he threw 79 pitches and is seemingly stretched out for big league duty.
Rodríguez’s first inning was great, striking out three batters with just a single in between. He struggled with command in the second inning, walking two batters before striking out Mickey Gasper and Karson Simas, with a Mark Contreras fly out between the two strikeouts.
Another walk and a single started off the third inning, with a run coming in to score thanks to a Nick Yorke groundout. However, Rodríguez struck out his final two batters – Nathan Hickey and Matthew Lugo – to end the third.
Rodríguez faced just one batter in the fourth, giving up a single to Niko Kavadas and was pulled after. However, that run eventually came in to score, as did nine others leading to Rodríguez picking up a loss in this game.
Diving deeper into the stats, Rodríguez averaged 93 mph on the fastball but touched 96 mph and generated two whiffs on nine total swings. The slider had 17 total swings with six whiffs for a 35 whiff%, while the curveball had a 75 whiff % (three whiffs) and the splitter had an 100 whiff % on two total swings.
Without question, it wasn’t as good as his start this past Tuesday, where he struck out 10 batters in just four innings pitched. However, Rodríguez has reportedly been called up to the Blue Jays according to Francys Romero.
Yimi García left Sunday’s game, so thankfully the Blue Jays will get some reinforcements even if it is a tough loss. Hopefully, Rodríguez can find some success upon returning to Toronto.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.
