Rodriguez allowed three hits and struck out two over two scoreless innings Monday against the Mets.
Rodriguez's line looked good, but manager Alex Cora had a different perspective. "For him to go deeper into games, he needs to attack guys -- his stuff was good, he got some swings and misses but those are things we need to get better and he knows it," Cora told Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald. "We need that next step -- 5 1/3 (innings), it's tough -- we want him to go deeper into games, and his stuff, he can do that whenever he feels like it. It's part of the learning process. He's holding up, he's been in the league a long, long time -- it's time for him to step up." This was Rodriguez's second spring outing, a game when most starters throwing three-plus innings, so Cora has a point. The left-hander has yet to throw more than 137 innings in a season and averages 5.3 innings per start.