Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he wasn’t at all concerned after veteran pitcher Wandy Rodriguez struggled in his first start last week, allowing two hits and two walks in one inning.
But while Gonzalez wrote it off as the sort of bad game that veteran pitchers often have in their spring-training debuts, Rodriguez didn’t brush it off so casually. After all, he’s the one on a minor-league contract, trying to win a spot in the starting rotation so he can stick around past March.
“You know what? I want to be there,” Rodriguez said. “I’m trying to do the best I can, because I want to make the team. It’s very important for me.”
And so the left-hander felt a lot better after his second outing Monday, when he pitched three crisp innings in a 2-1 win against the Nationals, allowing just a pair of two-out singles in the third inning on a bloop and an infield hit. Rodriguez had two strikeouts and no walks and threw 26 strikes in 36 pitches.
“Better location,” he said. “You could see I worked on my location and (it was) very good today. I threw a lot inside and didn’t miss too many times. My first start, I tried a lot of pitches away and I stayed open (in his delivery). Today I went inside and stayed more closed. I didn’t miss much.”
Gonzalez was asked about the improvement in Rodriguez’s location from his first start.
“I also saw him spin the breaking ball pretty darn good,” he said. “The first at-bat against (Anthony) Rendon – he doesn’t look bad against anybody, and (Rodriguez) punched him out on a couple of pretty solid breaking balls.”
Rodriguez came to spring training as one of four candidates for the vacant fifth-starter job, along with fellow veteran lefty Eric Stults and prospects Mike Foltynewicz and Manny Banuelos. When Mike Minor was scratched from his first start with a sore shoulder, there was another potential opening, at least to open the season.
Chien-Ming Wang and Cody Martin could be additional candidates if there two openings. The Braves were waiting for an evaluation on Minor’s shoulder from Dr. James Andrews, who examined him Monday afternoon.
Wang, another veteran on a minor-league contract, also pitched three scoreless innings Monday, allowing two hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Gonzalez “piggy-backed” Wang with Rodriguez – and Stults with ace Julio Teheran — in their first outings because there are too many starters in camp to have each start games on a regular rest.
