Boston Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez grinds out an Ace in Wild Card race

With 3 games left in the 2021 MLB season, the Boston Red Sox have no more room to play around if they want to extend the season to the postseason.

Tied with the Seattle Mariners for the second American League Wild Card spot, the Red Sox sent Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound against the lowly Washington Nationals Friday night and the lefty grinned it out to lead the team to a 4-2 victory.

Aided by a three-run bomb off the bat of Hunter Renfroe in the sixth inning, Rodriguez showed some grit in helping his team one game closer to clinching that second Wild Card spot and a game behind the New York Yankees for that first Wild Card slot, which would give them home field against either the Yankees, Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays.

Although the team did get a much-needed victory, the offense was still quiet until that sixth inning when Renfroe finally broke through with the 3-run blast and Bobby Dalbec followed that with a solo shot to put the team up 4-0 at the time.

Boston Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez put on his big boy pants

As big as those four runs were, the solid performance by Rodriguez really picked the team up.  The veteran lefty delivered 5 2/3 scoreless innings including pitching his way out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth inning with no one out.  The highlight of that inning was a gold grove type play by second baseman Kikè Hernandez who barehanded a little tapper off the bat of Andrew Stevenson and fired to first base to deliver the final out of that inning.

While Rodriguez did his part in delivering the right pitches in that situation, the defense behind him really hyped him up.

"“That’s a Gold Glove play right there,” Rodriguez said following the game, via MLB.com.  “That’s everything I can say right there.  That’s a Gold Glove play.  After I saw the ground ball, I know the guy is really fast, so I’m really just thinking, ‘He can make the play,’ and he made the play.  That’s something you don’t see every day.”"

Perhaps that one play saved the Red Sox hopes for the postseason.  Solid pitching, timely offense and great defense are the ingredients for making a run in the playoffs.

While the Red Sox haven’t done much to write their own destiny over the last week by getting swept by the Yankees and losing 2-of-3 to the Baltimore Orioles, Alex Cora and these 2021 Red Sox may still have a shot to re-establish that team that once had the best record in baseball prior to the MLB All-Star break.

That seems like a totally different season, but the players are the same.  With the addition of Chris Sale and Kyle Schwarber offensively, they are a better team when their heads are in the game.

But, as one game can change the entire complexion of this intense Wild Card race, Cora is just taking what he can get at this point.

"“You win, then you look around and see where we’re at,” Cora said.  “We’ve got one job to do and it’s to win ballgames.  Obviously, what’s going on, you see it all over the place.  You’re locked in on your game, of course, but you know what’s going on around the league.”"

As far as Eduardo Rodriguez goes, if this was his last game in a Red Sox uniform, he delivered at a time when the team needed him most.  If the team does extend into the postseason, beyond the Wild Card game, the inconsistent lefty could get a chance to help his team again and pitch his way to a pretty decent contract either with the Boston Red Sox or someone else.