Eduardo Rodríguez throws big innings for Boston

LOS ANGELES – Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez had never been overcome with such a rush of anger on the mound as he was immediately after giving up Yasiel Puig’s three-run home run Saturday night. Not as a child playing amateur ball, as a young adult in the minors or in the majors had he been so violently shaken.

The raw emotion cut through Rodríguez’s core, prompting him to slam his glove on the mound as Puig raised his arms triumphantly while the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium erupted after the Dodgers took a 4-0 lead in the sixth inning.

Once reliever Matt Barnes got out of the sixth inning, the Red Sox rushed back into the dugout in search of Rodríguez to assure him that they weren’t done. Sure enough, the American League champions came from behind to beat the Dodgers 9-6 in Game 4 of the World Series to get within a victory of the title.

“Since I was a little kid, I’d never felt that emotion right there,” Rodríguez said after becoming just the sixth pitcher in history to start a postseason game without a day of rest after making a relief appearance. “Never in my life [did I] feel that emotion like I felt in that moment.

“My reaction was to throw my glove down,” he continued. “You … get mad because you got beat, and that’s what happens.”

The record will show that Joe Kelly, who threw two scoreless innings of relief, was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the 2018 World Series on a night Steve Pearce was 2-for-4 with four RBIs and the game-tying solo home run in the eighth.

But Rodríguez played a significant role while giving up four runs in 5 ⅔ innings in an emergency start. He gave up four hits with six strikeouts while throwing 93 pitches, the most he had thrown since throwing 100 on Sept. 20 against the Yankees.

Rodríguez, who was 13-5 with a 3.82 ERA over 27 games (23 starts) in the regular season, had not started a game since Sept. 20. Before Game 4, his six appearances this postseason had been out of the bullpen, and none was longer than 1 ⅔ innings. His previous three outings had been for one-third of an inning or less.

Moreover, he had not thrown more than 31 pitches in an appearance this postseason, and that was in his first outing 21 days earlier against the Yankees. In his previous three appearances, he had thrown six, three and seven pitches respectively.

He didn’t learn that he would start Game 4 on until after the epic, 18-inning Game 3 classic ended at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Rodríguez was one of nine pitchers Red Sox manager Álex Cora used in the 3-2 loss to the Dodgers in Game 3, but he welcomed the chance to make his first World Series start on no rest.

“I love my team,” Cora said. “I mean, they’re very talented. They understand that it takes nine innings or 18 innings and 7 hours and 15 minutes to finish games, but they love to play baseball. They’ve been doing it since spring training. They’ve been very consistent throughout. And now we’re in this position.”

Rodríguez was given the starting nod because Nathan Eovaldi, the scheduled Game 4 starter, was needed for 6 innings of relief in the losing effort in Game 3, which lasted a postseason record seven hours and 20 minutes over 18 grueling innings.

“That was very important for us for [Rodríguez] to throw the innings that he threw because we used a lot of our bullpen [in Game 3],” said Rafael Devers, who gave the Red Sox the lead for good with a pinch, RBI single to right in the ninth. “We capitalized today and he threw well.”

The Red Sox exploded for five runs in the ninth to get enough cushion to survive after the Dodgers scored two in the bottom of the inning.

The Dodgers appeared on their way to victory after Puig hit a three-run blast to left field off Rodríguez in the sixth to cap a four-run inning. The 4-0 lead wasn’t nearly enough for the National League champions.

“They all came to me after [Matt] Barnes got the guy out,” Rodríguez said. “They came inside and they told me, ‘Bro, that was the best game we ever saw you pitch. We’re going to get you back, and they did it.’”

The Red Sox definitely had Rodríguez’s back. They’re now one victory away from the franchise’s fourth World Series title since 2004 and their first since 2013. They can end it all Sunday at Dodger Stadium in Game 5.

After winning a franchise record 108 games, they’ve dispatched the rival Yankees in the Division Series, the 2017 World Series champion Astros in the American League Championship Series and won three of the first four games in the Fall Classic.

“We came here to win,” Rodríguez said. “We got (there) out to win. That’s what we do, and now we only need one.”

Featured Image: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images Sport