DETROIT -- It was more like the version of Grayson Rodriguez the Angels were envisioning when they acquired him in an offseason trade with the Orioles for Taylor Ward.
Rodriguez, making his third start of the year after opening the season on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation, turned in his best outing yet by allowing one run over five innings in a 7-1 win over the Tigers on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park. It’s an encouraging sign for the 26-year-old former first-rounder as he looks to prove he can stay healthy and reach his immense potential.
“Definitely taking steps in the right direction,” Rodriguez said. “I'm not fully where I want to be yet, but just using these building blocks to keep going, keep pushing forward.”
It also gave the Angels back-to-back series victories for the first time this season, as they came in fresh off a three-game sweep over the Rangers. Rodriguez said that the message among teammates after the game was to keep it going and build some momentum after they endured a tough stretch that lasted more than a month.
“That's huge,” Rodriguez said. “That's what we talked about just after the game. We've still got so much baseball left in front of us and just got to stack these wins on top of each other and keep going and keep winning series.”
Rodriguez was coming off a win but allowed four runs over 5 2/3 innings in that start against Texas, and entered with a 10.61 ERA in 9 1/3 innings. But he looked much sharper against the Tigers, allowing two hits and two walks with five strikeouts to improve to 2-1 with a 7.53 ERA in 14 1/3 innings.
His lone blemish was giving up a solo homer to Wenceel Pérez on an 0-1 four-seamer at the top of the zone in the second inning. Otherwise, he didn’t deal with too much traffic. The Tigers put just one runner in scoring position against him and it came in the first inning, but he escaped the jam by getting Spencer Torkelson to fly out to center.
“I think he's consistently been better and better with his execution and things like that,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “It's nice to see him get better each time he goes out there, velo-wise, pitch execution-wise and all that stuff.”
Rodriguez's pitch count was the only thing that held him back, as he needed 88 pitches to record 15 outs and the Angels are being cautious with him as he’s back in the Majors for the first time since July 2024. He missed last year due to injury but his stuff has looked impressive, including his four-seamer averaging 96.2 mph against Detroit.
Rodriguez, though, said his pitch count was up because he got behind too many guys but was encouraged by the fact he was able to work his way back several times after falling behind in the count.
“I fell behind some guys and was able to get back in it,” Rodriguez said. “I was down 3-0 maybe two or three times and still came back and got an out. I think that was important. Just being able to still hang in there even behind in the count.”
He didn’t get any run support until the fifth, when the Angels finally broke out for three runs against veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty. Jo Adell and Zach Neto both had key doubles as part of the inning while backup catcher Sebastián Rivero also came through with an RBI single.
The Angels tacked on two insurance runs in the eighth with Vaughn Grissom doubling Mike Trout home from first. It was aggressive baserunning from Trout, and it allowed Grissom to reach third and score on an RBI single from Jorge Soler. The Angels added another pair on Trout’s two-run double in the ninth.
“It was definitely good,” Suzuki said. “Obviously last night was a little tougher, and then today I think they bounced back really nicely, put some good at-bats together. Mikey coming home on that one was really nice. And then Mikey’s big hit in the ninth to bring home two runs was a big one. To keep adding on, I think if we can keep that trend, obviously we know it’s easier said than done, but I think that would be a good thing.”