Rodon strikes out 11 but White Sox lefty not happy with erratic outing
In the top of the second inning Tuesday afternoon, Carlos Rodon pounced on Cubs starter John Lackey's first pitch and lined a 2-run double to right-center field.
It was a clutch at-bat, but Rodon wasn't overly impressed with his first major-league hit.
"My job is to pitch and not hit," Rodon said.
Drafted by the Chicago White Sox with the No. 3 overall pick in 2014, this was the year Rodon was supposed to move to the top of the rotation and establish himself as a foundation in the club's rebuilding effort.
A health issue scrapped that plan, as Rodon missed most of spring training and the first three months of the season with left biceps bursitis.
He is still trying to get back up to full speed, and his outing in a 7-2 loss at Wrigley Field prominently displayed Rodon's strength and weakness.
On the plus side, the 24-year-old lefty became major-league baseball's first pitcher since at least 1913 to have 11 strikeouts in a start that lasted 4 innings or less.
On the minus side, Rodon allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while throwing 98 pitches in 4 innings.
"I would trade those 11 strikeouts in for 6 or 7 innings, just to not tax the bullpen to go out there and go that long," Rodon said. "I just have got to get that command. Even if it is moving, just try to harness that movement and try to get it into the zone."
In 5 starts since coming off the DL, Rodon has made it into the seventh inning one time and sixth inning one time.
"You could say that, but it isn't April," Rodon said of missing so much time due to injury. "It's July. Try not to give too many excuses for myself. I have to go out there and compete for my team and pitch the way I should pitch. It's not happening right now."
Much like former ace Chris Sale, the White Sox are trying to get Rodon to cut down his big strikeout count and get opposing hitters to put the ball in play.
"All in all, his stuff is pretty good," manager Rick Renteria said. "It's lively, his ball is moving a lot. We're just trying to see if we can get it to do some early outs, keeping his ability to lengthen his outings."
While Rodon was erratic Tuesday, he didn't hit anybody.
The same can't be said for Cubs starter John Lackey, who hit 4 White Sox batters, including Jose Abreu twice.
Lackey plunked Abreu in the first inning and again in the fifth, when he also hit Matt Davidson and Yoan Moncada to load the bases before getting Tim Anderson to ground out.
The mild-mannered Abreu stood and stared at Lackey after getting hit the second time, but he took no further action.
"I think that we all know what is happening," Abreu said through an interpreter. "It's baseball and at the end of the day, you have to ask the pitcher who executed that pitch."
While Ken "Hawk" Harrelson called for vengeance in the White Sox's TV booth, Chris Beck relieved Rodon in the fifth and drilled Cubs leadoff hitter Ian Happ. That prompted home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale to warn both benches.
For now, that was good enough for Renteria.
"You'd have to ask the other side if it was or wasn't," Renteria said when asked if he thought Lackey was intentionally throwing at his hitters. "I think at the end of the day, everything was taken care of between the lines and it's over."