Not great pen management today by Martinez. We burned through 5 of the 7 relievers, including both lefties. Maybe Grace or Solis can pitch in the night cap, but that's not ideal.
Should have left Rodriguez in for another inning at least. He was at 64 pitches.
I would have liked to see him leave one of those relievers in for more than an inning, but the only one who it made sense to me to leave in was Solis. Grace looked shaky in a close game, Miller came out for a pinch hitter in a close game, Holland didn't need to be the guy to go multiple innings. By the time Solis was lifted for Eaton, the team had a six-run lead and only one inning to go. So maybe then.
What I don't question is replacing Rodriguez. We are talking about Jefrey Rodriguez, the guy who's previous three starts produced 4 runs in 4 innings, 5 runs in 5 innings and 6 runs in 5 innings. They guy who had a 4.39 ERA at Syracuse and was only pitching 5 or 6 innings in Triple A. We had gotten more out of him than we had any right to expect, and instead of a possibly blowup inning by him, we win the game handily.
Sure would be nice, though, if Max can go 8 innings tonight -- so long as it doesn't push him too much. No matter what happens tonight, we need him to not be worn out if/when we get to the playoffs.
