Rodriguez’s injury saga with the D-backs began on March 19th, when he left a spring training game against the Cubs in the first inning. A few days later, manager Tory Lovullo downplayed the injury, noting his concern was “minimal” and attributing it to some lat discomfort. Subsequently, it was revealed that Rodriguez’s status for Opening Day was uncertain. Shortly after, it was announced that the highly anticipated offseason addition would begin the 2024 season on the 60-day IL with a left lat strain.
Since then, it has been a series of setbacks, with Rodriguez starting and stopping his throwing program due to pain or tightness. He most recently began another throwing program about a month ago, shortly after Torey Lovullo expressed regret over how the entire injury situation was handled.
His latest throwing program started around a month ago, during which he began to throw off the mound in some simulated games, lasting around four innings.
Looking ahead to his start against Cleveland, Rodriguez has quite a bit of experience against the Guardians, having faced them several times when he was with the Tigers.
He has fared exceptionally well against the Guardians, posting a 6-0 record and a 2.28 ERA across eight starts. Last season, in particular, Rodriguez was dominant against Cleveland. He first pitched an eight-inning shutout, striking out 10 batters on April 16th, 2023. Then, a few weeks later, he tossed a seven-inning shutout, striking out eight batters. In August, Rodriguez allowed one earned run in 6.2 innings, and on October 1st, he pitched seven innings while allowing one earned run. Altogether, Rodriguez allowed just two earned runs across 28.2 innings against the Guardians in 2023.
Ironically, the last time Rodriguez pitched on a major league mound during a regular season game was during that October 1st start when he led the Tigers to a 5-2 win. E-Rod will now look to replicate this success with the first pitch at 3:40 PM on Tuesday.
