Red Sox lefty Rodriguez scratched for opener with 'dead arm'

Boston Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez will have to wait a little longer before returning to a big league mound.

The Red Sox on Friday scratched Rodriguez as their opening day starter because of a “dead arm." Nathan Eovaldi will instead face the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on April 1.

Manager Alex Cora said Rodriguez missed a bullpen session on Wednesday, two days after lasting just two innings in a spring training start. He played catch Thursday and felt fine, and Cora said Rodriguez would have a bullpen session on Saturday.

Rodriguez went 19-6 for Boston. He had been set to start the 2020 season opener before it was delayed by the coronavirus outbreak. The 27-year-old contracted COVID-19 and related heart problems that kept him from pitching at all last season.

Cora said the current issue is unrelated to the myocarditis.

“It’s just dead arm,” he said.

Cora said Rodriguez pushed to make start the opener, but the team took the decision out of his hands.

“Like I told him yesterday, I said, ‘The way you throw the ball, the way your career is going, at one point in your career you will be an opening day starter — maybe more than once,’” Cora said.

Eovaldi started the opener in Rodriguez’s place last year will do so again next week, Cora said. To prepare, he will have two more bullpen sessions before the team breaks camp in Fort Myers, Florida.

“He’s built up as far as the pitches and all that,” Cora said. “He’s ready to go. It’s just a matter of how we manage his week.”

TIGERS 5, PIRATES 2

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source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Red-Sox-lefty-Rodriguez-scratched-for-opener-with-16057100.php