Detroit left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez departed the Tigers’ Monday game against the host Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth inning due to a spasm around his upper back and pitching shoulder.
Rodriguez will be re-evaluated on Tuesday.
Rodriguez had just thrown a strike to Chris Taylor when he began to stretch his back behind the mound. He was visited by manager A.J. Hinch as well as the team’s medical staff before throwing one warm-up pitch to the backstop and then departing the mound.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He had a (scapular) spasm, either when he stopped or the pitch before. When we went out there, he just wanted to take a breath and had a little bit of a hard time kind of settling down. …
“He really wanted to throw a pitch, and he felt like it was just a little bit of a spasm and that he was going to be fine. And then when he tried to throw, he was very uncomfortable, so we just took him out of the game.”
The Tigers went on to fall 8-3, with Rodriguez charged with the loss. He fell to 11-9 with a 3.57 ERA after yielding five runs on five hits and a walk with one strikeout in three-plus innings.
J.D. Martinez hit home runs off Rodriguez in the second and third innings to give the Dodgers an early 5-0 lead. Taylor continued his at-bat against right-hander Trey Wingenter and struck out.
Rodriguez was facing the Dodgers six weeks after he declined to join them near the trade deadline. Los Angeles and Detroit worked out a deal, but Rodriguez used his no-trade rights to decline a move to the West Coast.
–Field Level Media
