Rodriguez struggles, bats silenced in loss to Tigers
· Yahoo Sports
ANAHEIM — It was signed, sealed and delivered just five batters into the game.
It started with a two-strike single by rookie phenom Kevin McGonigle to leadoff the game. Then, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez hit the next batter with a pitch and allowed another single to score McGonigle. After getting a strikeout for the first out, Rodriguez gave up a three-run home run to Spencer Torkelson.
Visit rouesnews.click for more information.
Four runs scored in five batters is never easy to bounce back from, but when facing the reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner, the Angels’ fate was sealed.
Rodriguez allowed six runs in four innings of work in the Angels’ 7-0 loss against the Tigers on Saturday night.
"Just leaving balls over the middle of the plate early," Rodriguez said. "Can't do that in the big leagues. It's happening more times than I wanted to this year. But it's just what happens when you really can't show good off speed stuff in zone, and they just kind of key in on fastballs."
He allowed the other two runs to score in the second inning when James Outman and McGonigle led off the inning with consecutive two-strike singles and then hit Dillon Dingler with a pitch again to load the bases. Colt Keith and Riley Greene hit consecutive sacrifice flies to score a pair of runs.
"I felt like some of the balls that he left out over the plate, they didn't miss," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. "I think that was kind of the story the first couple innings was when they got a pitch to hit, they barreled it up."
Nothing was working for Rodriguez in this one. Out of the 16 balls the Tigers put in play against him, 13 of them were hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or faster, and eight of them were hit 100 mph or faster.
Rodriguez continues his disappointing debut season with the Angels as he now has an 8.23 ERA in eight starts.
"Not as good as I want to be, but we're grinding," Rodriguez said of where he's at. "I mean, that's all that you can do. You're not going to feel great all the time. But you just gotta put your head down and get to work, and keep going out there every day."
Saturday was already going to be a tall task for the Angels with left-hander Tarik Skubal taking the mound for the Tigers.
"You go down four nothing, on another night, you're like, 'Okay, it's the first,'" Suzuki said. "But when you got a Cy Young Award winner out there, it makes it a little bit tougher."
Skubal has won the last two American League Cy Youngs for good reason, and he showed why on Saturday. He shut the Angels down for seven innings and struck out nine batters with no walks on five hits.
Even when the Angels got to the Tigers’ bullpen, they had no answers.
The Angels are now 38-61and have lost 12 of their last 14 games.