Sports

Tigers Have a K-Rod Problem -- Lynn Henning

April 28, 2017, 3:20 PM

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K-Rod

These days if the Tigers have a razor thin lead or are tied, and they bring in closer Francesco Rodriguez, aka K-Rod, there's reason to get very very worried.

He blew a 1-1 tie on Thursday against the Seattle Mariners and Mariners went on to win 2-1. And that's certainly not the first time.

All, which leads Lynn Henning of The Detroit News to write:

He has not pitched well in 2017. He was ripped during spring camp, which was partly excusable when K-Rod, 35, was busy with World Baseball Classic duty and when in recent years he hasn’t been a quick starter.

April, though, hasn’t been a lot better. Not sufficiently to give Tigers fans a break. They’re free to wonder if K-Rod’s fastball, which struggles to reach 89 mph, isn’t betraying him when there is so little difference in velocity from his out-pitch, a mid-80s change-up. . . .

Rodriguez wasn’t exactly a 90-plus-mph guy in 2016. But now the separation is so narrow. And hitters are waiting to attack.

"He has struggled,” says Tigers manager Brad Ausmus.  “We need him to pitch better.


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