Detroit — There’s a lot of ways to measure how brilliant Eduardo Rodriguez pitched in Game 2 of a doubleheader with Central Division-rival Cleveland.
There’s the line score, of course: He allowed four hits and struck out 10 in eight innings, helping the Tigers gain the sweep, winning the nightcap 1-0 in a game that took one hour and 50 minutes to play. He hasn’t gone eight full innings since 2019. It was the ninth time he posted double-digit punch-outs, but he hadn’t done so since 2021 when he wore a Red Sox uniform.
All indicators of dominance.
But here’s the topper: Rodriguez struck out Guardians’ perennial All-Star Jose Ramirez three times. Reliever Jason Foley also struck him out to end the game and earn his first career save in the ninth.
“He’s not an easy guy to strike out in general,” manager AJ Hinch said. “You may go the rest of your careers covering sports and never see that again.”
Ramirez has struck out just five times in 75 plate appearances entering play Tuesday. He struck out five times total in the doubleheader.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 1, Guardians 0
“He’s a great hitter,” said Rodriguez, who previously had given up 5 hits in 13 at-bats to Ramirez. “I love him. But I just try to get outs. For me, no matter who is in the box, no matter if it’s him or somebody else, if it’s the first hitter or the ninth hitter − I just go out there and try to get outs.”
With the sweep − they won the first game 4-3 on a walk-off, ninth-inning home run by Kerry Carpenter − the Tigers have won five in a row. The lone run was provided by an opposite-field home run by Riley Greene in the sixth inning.
“I’ve been telling you guys that we have a good team,” Rodriguez said. “We have really good chemistry here. It’s just everybody going out and trying to win games. Everybody just doing their part to help us win games.”
Rodriguez was conducting his business with four-seam fastballs, cutters, sinkers and changeups. He was precisely sequencing and spotting each pitch. His four-seamer generated seven swinging strikes and eight called strikes. The cutter got five whiffs and three called strikes.
“I had everything working,” he said. “All my pitches where located right where I wanted. It was just one of those days when you just go out there and pitch…The hitters are the ones who tell me what pitch I’m going to use and today it was that fastball. I was able to put where I wanted it.”
All four base runners reached on singles. He needed just 99 pitches to get through eight innings, throwing 72 strikes. He consistently worked ahead in the count.
“It was everything we talked about on how to be competitive and how to win games,” Hinch said. “It starts with throwing strikes and he pounded the strike zone relentlessly. That’s where the strikeouts come from, getting into leverage…He didn’t have a stressful inning to speak of.
“Pitching ahead, pitching in count leverage and finishing at-bats, that’s picture perfect for what we want from our pitchers.”
Cleveland slugger Josh Naylor hit the longest ball off Rodriguez. It traveled 362 feet and looked to headed for the seats. But right-fielder Matt Vierling raced back and timed his leap perfectly, catching the ball well over the 7-foot wall.
“I was playing a little deep and a little in the gap,” said Vierling. “But I felt like I got a good jump and a good read on it. I went back knowing I was going to get smoked by the wall a little bit. I just went on to it and prepared for it.”
Greene, who had three hits in the first game, slammed a 1-2 four-seamer from Guardians rookie Peyton Battenfield, who limited the Tigers to three hits in six strong innings. The first three pitches Greene saw in the at-bat were on the outside edge of the plate. He was ready for the fourth one and lined it inside the foul pole in left field for his second home run of the season.
“He’s a really good player and he’s learning a ton,” Hinch said of Greene. “He’s not fully developed. We will keep pushing him and trying to remind him how good he is during his low times, so he can come out of it and have days like today.”
The Tigers are now 7-9 after starting 2-9.
“It’s just baseball momentum,” Vierling said. “We’re feeling better as a team, more confident and that breeds better hitting, better defense, better pitching. Everybody has been doing their part. Last week wasn’t the best but we feel like we’re in a really good spot now.”
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky