E-Rod provides necessary length in Game 4 win

LOS ANGELES -- Eduardo Rodriguez knew he was in trouble the second the ball made contact with Yasiel Puig's bat.
Actually, Rodriguez probably knew a split-second before contact that this was going to end badly. The pitch was up in the zone, and Puig, a terrific fastball hitter, wasn't going to miss it. Rodriguez knew this, and after he watched the ball leave the park, he threw his glove on the mound in frustration, absorbing the reality that everything good that had happened in the first five innings Saturday night went for naught.
Or so it seemed.
"I gave up the homer, got mad and went inside [the clubhouse]," Rodriguez said. "Then I came out, and we started scoring runs."
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It's possible Rodriguez will never again experience the range of emotions that overwhelmed him throughout the Red Sox's 9-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, moving them within one game of clinching a championship. The lefty spent five innings as a savior of sorts, posting zeros while plowing through Los Angeles' lineup, knowing in the back of his mind that after an 18-inning Game 3 that exhausted his team -- and the pitching staff -- it was up to him to absorb as many innings as possible.
Rodriguez, who threw six pitches in relief in Game 3 and had not started a game since Sept. 20, matched Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill inning-for-inning, holding L.A. scoreless through the first five frames.
"He was amazing," Boston manager Alex Cora said. "From pitch one, his stuff was there."
In a regular-season game, with lower stakes and a more rested bullpen, it's unlikely Cora would have let Rodriguez pitch to the right-handed-hitting Puig in the sixth. Rodriguez opened the inning by plunking David Freese, and after he struck out Max Muncy, Justin Turner doubled to left, putting runners at the corners.
Cora called for an intentional walk to Manny Machado, and an error by catcher Christian Vázquez on a throw to first allowed Turner to score.
Logically, Rodriguez's night should probably have been over then. Instead, his outing ended a minute-and-a-half later, after he slammed his glove to the ground and watched in frustration as Puig took a triumphant trip around the bases, celebrating his three-run homer and the Dodgers' 4-0 lead.
"As a starter, as a pitcher, when you throw a pitch and you know it's going to be out of the ballpark, you know right away," Rodriguez said. "Right when I threw the ball, as soon as he hit it, I knew it was going to be out. The only thing that came to my mind, I don't know -- it just blew my mind right there. And I got mad."

Cora acknowledged that he should not have left Rodriguez in to face Puig.

"I pushed him too hard," Cora said. "I had [Matt Barnes] ready, and I was actually kicking myself for a few innings before the comeback."
Rodriguez's infield teammates, likely still feeling the emotion of watching Nathan Eovaldi's six-inning relief effort from the previous night, surrounded the pitcher as Cora walked to the mound to remove him. They patted Rodriguez on the head and back, making sure he knew how much his effort was appreciated.

"Everybody said, 'Bro, you did a really good job today, thanks for everything you did and we're going to win this game,'" Rodriguez said.
They kept their promise. After managing one hit through the first six innings, the Red Sox rallied back with three runs in the seventh, a game-tying homer in the eighth and five more runs in the ninth.

Rodriguez watched the drama unfold, marveling at how dramatically his night, and Boston's fate, changed.
"Since I was a little kid, I never felt like that emotion there," Rodriguez said. "I never in my life felt emotion like I felt in that moment. My reaction was, I threw my glove down. When you're mad because you got beat, that's what happens.
"I threw the glove down, and then afterward, I kept my head up, came in here [to the dugout], and we won the game."