Rodr\u00edguez had his first brush with traffic on the bases in the second and passed that test as well. Baltimore had runners on the corners following a Tyler O\u2019Neill leadoff single and Adley Rutschman one-out single, but Rodr\u00edguez worked himself out of the jam by getting Heston Kjerstad to bounce into the inning-ending double play on a perfectly located 1-2 changeup on the corner low and away. We also got our first ABS challenge earlier in the frame, Rodr\u00edguez having a strike two call confirmed after Colton Cowser challenged.<\/p>\n
Rogers departed after two innings, replaced by reliever Keegan Akin, while Rodr\u00edguez was allowed to pitch the third. The Orioles started to barrel up the baseball the second time the top of the order faced Rodr\u00edguez, Henderson lining a two-out single to center and Alonso clubbing what looked like a sure-thing RBI double into the gap in left center, but non-roster invitee and former minor league Gold Glove winner Kenedy Corona made a fabulous diving catch to save a run and end the inning for the first web gem of spring.<\/p>\n
View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Despite the harder hit balls to end his outing, Rodr\u00edguez was nothing short of impressive in his spring debut. His sinker had decent velocity, averaging 94, while the changeup and slider look like his go-to weapons to induce whiffs. Overall, he posted a very good 29-percent called-strike-plus-whiff rate and an even better 70-percent groundball rate. Most notably, Rodr\u00edguez exhibited sharp command of four different pitches, able to find the edges of the zone with the sinker, cutter, changeup, and slider. He departed after three scoreless innings having allowed three hits and no walks with one strikeout on 42 total pitches.<\/p>\n Jake Bird was the first reliever out of the bullpen for the Yankees, and he maneuvered around an O\u2019Neill one-out single by inducing the inning-ending double play from Cowser. Austin Wells unsuccessfully challenged a pair of called balls that weren\u2019t particularly close in the fourth and fifth innings, meaning the Yankees were out of challenges for the rest of the game. New York subbed out all their starters shortly thereafter, but not before Alonso provided the only offense of the contest, a booming two-run blast to left off a hanging first-pitch curveball from career minor-leaguer Bradley Hanner.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a5d7702097b7cace7a64381c68f2e3ac.jpeg\"\/)
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