MLB Game Preview - Boston at Colorado

Wed Aug 28, 2019 8:40 PM EDT

A bright spot in what has been a disappointing season so far for the Boston Red Sox is the performance of left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez. He has emerged as another quality arm in the rotation for the reigning World Series champions.

Rodriguez (15-5, 3.92 ERA) has been dominant over his last 17 starts, going 11-2 with a 3.14 ERA. He gets a chance to extend that streak when he pitches the finale of a two-game series against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night in Denver.

Rodriguez will go against Colorado rookie Peter Lambert, who is looking for his first win since June 11.

The Red Sox belted three home runs while beating the Rockies 10-6 on Tuesday night.

Rodriguez, a starter for most of his short career, appeared in seven postseason games in 2018 and started one, Game 4 of the World Series in Los Angeles, when the Red Sox beat the Dodgers to take a 3-1 lead in the series. He pitched five shutout innings in that game before L.A. tagged him for four runs in the sixth and chased him.

This year, Rodriguez has been in the rotation since Opening Day and has only gotten better. In his past two starts, he has thrown a combined 14 1/3 shutout innings and allowed only nine hits and three walks.

"He's really starting to understand," teammate David Price told masslive.com. "He's not just throwing out there anymore. He's pitching. He's mixing everything in, and he's learning how to set up different stuff with his sequences. He's learning what to look for in video before he goes out there. Just identifying little things like that. He's starting to do everything a really, really good pitcher is supposed to."

Wednesday will be his second career start against the Rockies. Rodriguez faced them on May 15 in Boston and allowed five runs on nine hits over six innings in a game the Red Sox won in the 10th. Lambert, meanwhile, will be facing Boston for the first time in his career.

The rookie right-hander made a splash in his major league debut, beating the Cubs in Chicago on June 6 and then repeated the feat against them in Denver five days later. Since then, it has been a struggle for Lambert (2-4, 6.40). He has gone 12 starts without a win, and the Rockies are 2-10 in those games.

One issue for Lambert -- and many of the pitchers on the staff -- has been walks. He issued just nine of them in his first nine starts and 46 innings. However, in 24 1/3 innings over five August starts, he has walked 17.

The Rockies have also endured inconsistency at the plate and on the mound, part of the reason they have lost seven of their past nine games.

"We can never get on the same page," infielder Ryan McMahon said after hitting a walk-off homer against the Atlanta Braves on Monday. "When our pitching dominates, we don't score any runs. When we score a bunch of runs, we give up too many."

--Field Level Media