CHICAGO -- It’s been a season of inconsistency for the Cleveland Indians. But through the club’s highest points and its lowest of lows,
“He had some shoulder tightness and he wanted to pitch like crazy and he fought us on it and none of us thought it was a good idea for somebody to go out there,” Francona said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”\n\nRodriguez had allowed one run on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts, but his velocity started to dip as the afternoon went on. While Statcast was logging his pitches as changeups, the right-hander was actually throwing fastballs that were clocking in in the upper 80s on the radar gun.\n\n“I thought he competed like he always does,” Francona said. “He lost the plate a little bit with his fastball. Now to his credit, he really spun his breaking ball better than we’ve probably seen. But then we saw his velocity click down a couple. So we got him in between innings.”\n\n**Staying scoreless**\n\n