Derek Shelton isn’t a fan of labels, so it’s no wonder the Pittsburgh Pirates manager is as reluctant to call Richard Rodriguez’s fastball a four-seamer as he was to name him the club’s closer.
Even though batters know it’s coming — Rodriguez throws his fastball on 91.3% of his pitches, compared to 8.7% for his slider — there’s a good reason they are hitting .085 (5 for 59) against it this season. His fastball spin rate (2,587) ranks in the 95th percentile in the majors, and it doesn’t always come across as what it appears to be.
“It’s not just a regular four-seam fastball. There is some serious deception in there. Most four-seam fastballs do one thing. His does multiple,” Shelton said, comparing one Rodriguez threw to Atlanta Braves pinch hitter Pablo Sandoval on Thursday night to a cutter. “So there is definitely some deception. There is some accuracy. He throws the ball where he wants to, so I think those things play into it.”
Where there is deception in the way Rodriguez has gone from Baltimore Orioles castoff to signing a minor league contract in December 2017 to pitching the equivalent of a perfect game, it’s more accurate to call him the Pirates’ most reliable reliever.
That’s a label even Shelton won’t contest.
Rodriguez doesn’t talk much, but isn’t shy about expressing how he feels about his preference for throwing the four-seamer as his putaway pitch in almost any situation. He was unapologetic about throwing 27 consecutive fastballs while pitching the ninth and 10th innings in Thursday’s 6-4 win over the Braves.
“Right now the reason why I’m using, what seems so much is, I’ve always felt confident with it,” Rodriguez said Friday through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “Right now I’m really confident just being able to (locate) that four-seam fastball. I understand that maybe the percentage might be high, but I’m hitting my spots perfectly.”
Even though Rodriguez led the Pirates with four saves last season, both Shelton and Pirates general manager Ben Cherington expressed their preference to keep him in a setup role this season. They even started the season with a closer-by-committee approach.
“I never took it personally,” Rodriguez said. “Going into the season, my mindset was to be whatever the team needs me to be. I want to be the best teammate and the best pitcher that they need me to be in whatever situation. I didn’t come in with a focus on being the closer or being a set-up man. I wanted to be the most dependable guy out there for the team. I respect whatever decision they make. I just want to be a pitcher who is looked at as someone who’s dependable and (who) they can go to, no matter what situation or whatever role they prefer.”
Shelton repeatedly talks about the willingness of Rodriguez to pitch multiple innings and on a daily basis, if necessary. Rodriguez has pitched in back-to-back games three times this season and has thrown two innings twice, both times in games that went 10 innings.
“He has no problem with that,” Shelton said. “When he doesn’t pitch, he wants to pitch. So one of the beautiful things about Richie Rodriguez is he will take the ball every day and pitch as much as you want and not say boo about it.”
His pitching, on the other hand, speaks volumes. Rodriguez is 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA — fifth-lowest amongst all MLB relievers — and a 0.37 WHIP with six saves in 19 innings over 18 games this season.
Since the start of the 2020 season, Rodriguez has a 1.79 ERA, allowing eight earned runs in 40 1/3 innings. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound right-hander hasn’t walked a batter since Opening Day, and retired 29 consecutive over a nine-game stretch from August 29, 2020 until May 9.
That nearly three-quarters of his outs are fly balls, line drives or pop ups isn’t by accident. Rodriguez said he practices it in daily routines with longtime bullpen catcher Herbie Andrade. First, they study film to identify and how to exploit hitters’ weaknesses and to know where to attack with elevated fastballs and how to sequence pitches.
“Then I meet up with Herbie, we talk about it, and Herbie and I just begin trying to execute that,” Rodriguez said. “He’s been so awesome with me, man. … There’s many times where Herbie’s like, ‘You’re not there yet. Keep throwing it. Keep throwing it’ until I hit that spot. So it’s really just spending a lot of time watching film, seeing, evaluating the hitter’s weaknesses, visualizing exactly where I think I need to put that ball to get that hitter in a tough situation where he ends up either striking out or hitting a fly out. And then I go with Herbie and I execute a plan, and I go out to the game feeling confident, feeling comfortable.”
Now, Rodriguez has not only become the lynchpin for a Pirates bullpen that has been one of the team’s strengths but earned his manager’s confidence by seizing the closer’s role the old-fashioned way.
“I think performance has definitely driven it and just the evolution of our bullpen and how it’s kind of stacked up,” Shelton said. “I mean, earlier in the year, we were playing the leverage role, and he just fit that spot. And he’s done such a really good job in that role that it kind of morphed into that.”
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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Richard Rodriguez rides fastball-heavy approach for success as Pirates closer - TribLIVE
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