Boston Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez delivers the juice at Tropicana Field

Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale said it best prior to Thursday night’s 4-0 shutout victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, “nothing is going to stop us.”

With COVID-19 threatening to deliver a knockout punch on these 2021 Red Sox, the resiliency of Alex Cora’s crew continued to punch back behind the delivery of Eduardo Rodriguez who delivered the juice at Tropicana Field by shutting down the Rays and infusing some hydration into a team that has been drained of all their energy over the past month.

In an important start for the Sox lefty, Rodriguez simply dominated for six-plus inning, giving up just four hits to help his team to a four-game split with the American League East leading Rays and most importantly, the victory kept the team two games up on the Oakland A’s for the second Wild Card spot.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez had it going on the mound

Fueling off the energy from a game prior when Sale provided a spark on the mound, Rodriguez continued the momentum by looking like the pitcher he was at the beginning of the season and like a pitcher worth re-signing. In a rough season, this final month will say a lot for Rodriguez in his hopes for a big contract. Showcasing dominance is exactly the way to do it and Thursday night he had all his pitches going.

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"“Today was one of those days that, for the first time of the whole season, I felty completely like me in my location,” Rodriguez said following the game, via MLB.com. “The cutter, the changeup, the curveball, the four-seam—for the first time, I felt good with all of it. That’s how I want to feel the rest of the season, especially when you’re trying to make it to the playoffs.”"

With his velocity also on point, Rodriguez had his confidence flowing, which if it continues suddenly gives the Boston Red Sox a solid front end of the rotation if Nathan Eovaldi gets his consistency going on the mound.

As long as COVID doesn’t continue to decimate the team, the Red Sox may not completely be down. They did finish the seven-game road trip with a 4-3 record despite losing almost half their team. There were low lights, but there were highlight performances as well.

Along with Sale’s performance Wednesday night, Garrett Richards has continued to pitch strong out of the bullpen. He capped that in the 4-0 victory by coming in the game and getting out of a jam in the seventh with a pair of strikeouts. He went on to pitch two more scoreless innings to record his second save of the season.

Offensively, Bobby Dalbec continues to hit the ball well. The A.L. Rookie of the Month helped the team get some runs on the board with a pair of RBI singles.

But the best part of the night and the road trip was the performances of Eduardo Rodriguez. In going seven innings against the Cleveland Indians followed by his shutout performance against the Rays, this man is starting to look like that 19-game winner back in 2019.

With the win, he has improved his record to 11-7 and the team’s overall record to 77-59. In all, the team is punching and kicking back behind a renewed energy provided by the pitching staff.

"“There was a lot of energy today. The guys were into it from the get-go and to be able to do that is a testament to them, as a group,” Alex Cora said in his postgame conference. “They understand that teams go through stuff like that. It’s not the first team that has a COVID issue, but there have been teams that went through this and then they took off, right? Hopefully this is our ‘taking off’ and we can play solid baseball all the way through September and get to October to play in October.”"

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If the Boston Red Sox take off and make the playoffs after all this, it will truly be a September to remember for the region and fans everywhere.

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