Elmer Rodriguez only issued seven free passes over his first four Triple-A outings this season, but the young righty was a bit erratic making his MLB debut on Wednesday.
Rodriguez walked four batters and hit another as he worked his way through four up-and-down innings in the Yankees’ series finale loss to the Rangers.
The 22-year-old was able to work around his shakiness at first, putting up a clean opening inning around two walks, then escaping a bases loaded jam in the second.
He retired the next six batters he faced, but Texas jumped on him in the fifth.
Rodriguez hit the leadoff man with a pitch then issued a seven-pitch walk, before giving up back-to-back singles to allow the Rangers to take a 2-0 lead.
The youngster was pulled after that, handing things over to Brent Headrick, who limited the damage to close his line with just the two runs allowed on four hits and four walks in as many innings.
While the youngster wasn’t as sharp as usual, Aaron Boone thought his stuff was good.
“There was a lot of good,” the skipper said. “We saw his stuff play, I thought his mix and spinning it was good, just a little better on the strike-throwing part and it’s a better line, but he still kept us in the game and gave us a chance.”
Rodriguez agreed that he could’ve executed a bit better, and he’ll look to grow from his mistakes in this outing before taking the ball again his next time out.
“It’s a good experience being here,” he said. “Obviously it’s my first time around, now I’m just trying to learn from all of the good and the bad and just go forward and continue to work.”
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