Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez will look to maintain his perfect career record against Cleveland when the Diamondbacks and Guardians meet in the second contest of a three-game series in Phoenix on Tuesday.
Rodriguez (5-7, 5.40 ERA) is to face Guardians’ right-hander Tanner Bibee (9-9, 4.54) as the Diamondbacks attempt to break a four-game losing streak. The Guardians won the series opener 3-1.
C.J. Kayfus and Brayan Rocchio homered for the Guardians, who broke a three-game losing streak.
“I’m just trying to make it as simple as possible,” said Kayfus, who has two homers in 15 games since being promoted from Triple-A Columbus. “I try to stay even keel.”
Rodriguez spent much of his career in the American League before signing a four-year, $80 million free agent deal with Arizona in 2023. He is 7-0 with a 2.51 ERA in nine career starts against the Guardians.
He peaked in 2023, when he was 4-0 with four quality starts in the matchup, giving up two earned runs with 29 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.
Rodriguez’s most recent outing against them came just more than a year ago, a 5-3 road victory on Aug. 7, 2024. It was his first appearance of that season after spending four months on the injured list with a left shoulder strain.
“The fun part is being able to come right in and help the team win important games,” Rodriguez said at the time.
The same situation applies this time as the Diamondbacks — and the Guardians, for that matter — attempt to gain traction in their respective wild-card chases. Arizona is seven games out of a wild-card in the National League.
Rodriguez enters after arguably his best start of the season, an 8-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday in which he gave up one run and six hits in a season-high seven innings. He struck out six and walked one.
“Not making mistakes in the middle of the zone,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said as the reason for Rodriguez’s success in Denver.
“He can paint edges as good as anybody, in particular the two-strike, not necessarily waste pitch, but something that is going to set up the next pitch. He manipulated the baseball as good as we have seen.”
Bibee, looking for his third straight season of double-digit wins, has won five of his past six decisions despite a 6.00 ERA in eight starts since July 2. He has given up at least four runs in seven of those games but benefited from an offense that scored 56 runs over that span.
“He battled,” Cleveland manager Steven Vogt said after Bibee’s recent victory over the Chicago White Sox, when he gave up four runs in the 9-5 Guardians win. “It still wasn’t the sharp Tanner that we’re used to seeing, but there was definitely some progress.”
Bibee won his only career start against the Diamondbacks, giving up three runs on seven hits in a 12-3 victory at Chase Field on June 18, 2023, in his rookie season.
The Guardians remain in the race for an American League wild-card spot. They enter play Tuesday three games behind the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Those three teams have identical .540 winning percentages and currently hold the three wild-card positions.
Cleveland is 8 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.
–Field Level Media
