Eduardo Rodriguez Aims to Start Season Right Track

The Arizona Diamondbacks are fresh off a heartbreaking loss Saturday night after they once again struggled with the minor details and edges that they usually excel at. Now, they will go for the series split against the Cubs, first pitch at 1:10 p.m.

The Diamondbacks are looking to get back to .500 before they embark on a week-long road trip to face the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals. They'll have to get back to playing D-backs baseball and winning on the margins and doing the little things right, which one knows they certainly have the ability to do.

Pitching Matchup: LHP Eduardo Rodriguez Vs. LHP Matthew Boyd

Eduardo Rodriguez is making his first start of the season and is entering his first healthy season in Arizona after missing extended time to start the season in 2024. Rodriguez is the only left-hander in the rotation and has plenty of ability to be one of the team's best as shown by his performance in 2023.

He just never seemed to get in a groove in 2024 with Arizona after coming back from a multi-month Injured List stay due to a strained LAT. Over 50 innings and 10 games, he had a 5.04 ERA, but a much lower 4.57 FIP. His xFIP was an even better 4.24, indicating that perhaps he was unlucky to a certain measure.

During Spring Training, he was fully healthy and looked extremely good. He looked like the 2023 version of him when he pitched to a 3.30 ERA over 152.2 innings.

Over 10 innings and three games, Rodriguez pitched to a 2.70 ERA with two walks and 12 strikeouts. His pitches were crisp, located excellently, and he was reaching his velocity from before. It was encouraging to see and gave plenty of hope that he could be one of the best No.4 or No.5 starters in baseball.

Rodriguez throws mainly three pitches but does have an arsenal of five. His three main ones are a 92 mph four-seam, 86.7 mph changeup, 88.8 mph cutter, and his two rarely used ones are a 91.7 mph sinker, and 83.9 mph slider.

Pitching for the Cubs is left-hander Matthew Boyd, who signed with them in the off-season. Boyd had a rough Spring Training over four games. He had a 6.59 ERA with six walks and three homers given up in only 13.2 innings.

This was after a strong finish to 2024, after he successfully came back from injury. He went 2-2 last year with a 2.72 ERA over 39.2 innings. He struck out 46 and walked 13. He's a fly-ball pitcher with a career fly-ball rate of 44.7%.

In his career against Arizona, Boyd has struggled. In two starts, he's 0-2, including one in 2023, and has an ERA of 6.55. He's pitched 11 innings, given up 14 hits, nine runs, five walks, and has nine strikeouts.

The left-hander throws five pitches, all of which are thrown at least 8% of the time. In order of thrown the most, they are a 92 mph four-seam, 80.9 mph changeup, 79.5 mph slider, 91.8 mph sinker, and a 74.1 mph curveball.

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