PHOENIX – Manager Torey Lovullo walked toward Eduardo Rodriguez in the dugout after he completed the top of the eighth inning Sunday afternoon and extended his hand. Rodriguez didn’t shake it back. He wanted 10 more pitches. He wanted the ball.
Rodriguez pitched into the ninth inning for the first time in his 11-year Major League career, steering the D-backs to a 5-1 victory over the Mets at Chase Field. It marks the club’s first back-to-back victories since a four-game winning streak from April 14-18.
The 33-year-old spun a career-high 8 1/3 dominant frames, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning. With the names of his mother (Magaly) and wife (Catherine) emblazoned on his hat as a Mother Day’s tribute, Rodriguez scattered four knocks – none of which registered as hard-hit (95-plus mph) per Statcast – and walked three, but allowed just one run. His outing marks the sixth consecutive game in which a D-backs starter has gone at least six innings, the longest current streak in the Majors.
“You see a guy on the mound that doesn't give you a lot of emotion,” bench coach Jeff Banister said of Rodriguez. “But under the hood, this guy is competing as much as anybody that we've got on the field.”
The southpaw breezed through the front five frames, throwing just 46 pitches, the fewest in a start for a D-backs hurler with that many innings since Barry Enright on Sept. 1, 2010. He didn’t allow a hit until the sixth when right fielder Carson Benge flared a 75.4 mph knock to center. His night was done after his 100th pitch was similarly blooped into the outfield – a 63 mph ducksnort from first baseman Mark Vientos.
Despite Rodriguez being in relative cruise control, Lovullo exercised caution with the season still not even a quarter of the way over, tabbing right-hander Juan Morillo for the final two outs.
“I know I was the most unpopular guy in the stadium,” Lovullo said of taking Rodriguez out. “When you're logging those innings, it's not necessarily the pitches, it's the nine up-downs. I don't want [him] throwing 88 [mph] in two starts because he's still fatigued from this start.”
Rodriguez threw his two hardest fastballs of the day in the ninth – 94.4 and 94.1 mph. Across the board, his velocity on all five of his offerings was up Sunday, an indication that the southpaw is gaining steam as the season wears on.
Through eight starts, Rodriguez has worked to the tune of a 2.25 ERA and a .202 average-against, both on pace for career-best marks. Arizona has won each of his past six outings, a streak that began when the southpaw topped the very same Mets club at Citi Field on April 9.
Which begs the question: What’s been working so well in 2026?
“Everything,” catcher James McCann said. “The big thing is that he's getting quick outs, he's getting ahead of hitters. He’s executing all his pitches to both sides of the plate, and he's able to keep them off-balance. He's in attack mode.”
Rodriguez again leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball and changeup (34 percent each) to flummox batters from both sides of the dish. Entering the start, batters had posted the sixth-lowest average in the Majors against both his heater (.160) and changeup (.196). He’s thrown to McCann in five of his eight outings, and their combined veteran savvy has helped them to develop a rapport that has kept hitters off-balance.
“Me and McCann got a really good game plan going on early, and then he just called the pitches and I threw,” Rodriguez said. “I follow what he calls, but it's just mixing the pitches the right way.”
Through eight starts last season, Rodriguez was running a 6.86 ERA. Fast-forward a year later and he’s made a near 180-degree turn. His “hot knife through butter” beginning to 2026 largely began when he helped lead Venezuela to a World Baseball Classic title back in March.
“I think there's some ingredients to that for him where he had to go emotionally and mentally get ramped up for that,” Banister said. “You could tell that there was a different attitude and he was in a different space when he got back. I think that confidence of going through something like that and being part of it has allowed him to carry that forth.”