SAN DIEGO — Grayson Rodriguez is having the perfect summer season of his baseball life. He’s pitching for the perfect crew within the American League within the midst of a pennant race. He has thrown extra innings than in any earlier season of his skilled profession. And the 23-year-old right-hander is doing it for an Orioles crew stuffed with youth in a enjoyable, lighthearted clubhouse.
One facet has been just like earlier years for Rodriguez, although. As the warmth and humidity ranges rise — a sense he’s fairly used to as a local of Nacogdoches, Texas — so have the radar-gun readings for his fastball. That’s one of many greatest the reason why Rodriguez has turned a nook in his rookie season, resulting in his finest outing but Monday night time at Petco Park.
While routinely throwing his heater 99-101 mph, Rodriguez carved by way of San Diego’s star-studded lineup, tossing a career-high seven innings of one-run ball and main Baltimore to a 4-1 series-opening victory. He scattered three hits, walked one and struck out six.
The Orioles (74-45) improved to a season-high 29 video games above .500. Ryan O’Hearn homered and Gunnar Henderson hit a three-run double to account for the offense in opposition to Yu Darvish.
But it was Rodriguez’s electrical stuff that once more stole the present.
How precisely is Rodriguez throwing so arduous, regardless of already having logged a career-high 122 1/3 innings (between the Majors and Minors)?
“Just the summertime, I guess,” Rodriguez stated with a smile. “Ever since 2019, in Low-A [Delmarva] to [Double-A] Bowie to everywhere else, I think August has been my best month for velo. So we’re going to keep that going, and, hopefully, we’re going to carry that into September and when October gets here.”
Rodriguez is proving that so long as he stays contemporary, he might make an impression in October, ought to Baltimore get to the postseason for the primary time since 2016.
In his preliminary 10-start stretch within the massive leagues throughout April and May, Rodriguez couldn’t pitch deep into video games and constantly struggled with command. Since returning to the Orioles on July 17, he has proven why he was probably the greatest pitching prospects to return by way of the group in years.
First 10 begins: 45 1/3 innings, 7.35 ERA, 56 strikeouts, 21 walks, .307 common in opposition to.
Past six begins: 35 2/3 innings, 3.03 ERA, 30 strikeouts, 11 walks, .195 common in opposition to.
“I feel more kind of like myself,” Rodriguez stated. “That first stint in the big leagues, I don’t like to say that was me.”
Added supervisor Brandon Hyde: “Just such a huge difference from when he came back — an amazing job of deliveries, a better tempo of the delivery. The command is better with his fastball. He’s pitching with way more confidence.”
Rodriguez touched 101 mph for under the second time within the massive leagues on his fifth pitch of Monday night time, when he received Ha-Seong Kim to floor out again to the mound. He threw 22 fastballs at 99 mph or greater.
Of Rodriguez’s 95 pitches, 38 had been four-seamers. His heater averaged 98.9 mph (1.7 above his season common), per Statcast, and it induced seven whiffs. He once more relied closely on his slider, as effectively, which he threw 32 instances (5 of which resulted in whiffs).
“Unbelievable. Electric stuff, obviously,” O’Hearn stated. “From my angle, it’s cool to see just how effortless it looks. But he was mixing it up, throwing strikes with all his pitches, attacking guys.”
Rodriguez pitched into the seventh for under the second time as an enormous leaguer. He beforehand went 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a win over the Yankees on July 28.
The lone harm the Padres did in opposition to Rodriguez was a sixth-inning leadoff homer by Garrett Cooper that traveled a Statcast-projected 439 toes to straight-away middle discipline. It was the primary time Rodriguez gave up a homer in his six begins since rejoining the Orioles’ rotation.
San Diego’s hitters might inform from Rodriguez’s arsenal it might be a difficult project.
“First of all, he’s throwing 100,” Padres proper fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. stated. “But after that, for me, it was the difference between the slider and the [curveball]. He executed well.”
The remainder of Baltimore’s roster is having fun with watching the maturation strategy of one in all its younger future stars.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez is having fun with the assist he’s getting every time he takes the mound throughout this unimaginable season for the O’s.
“Obviously, the defense stands out — one of the better defending teams in the big leagues,” Rodriguez stated. “So that just makes a pitcher’s job really easy. And especially when you’ve got those guys in that lineup stacked up and they’re scoring you some runs. It’s a lot of fun.”
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