Rodriguez threw just four sliders out of his 102 pitches thrown in Wednesday's game against the White Sox, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports.
Rodriguez relied heavily on his fastball (77 pitches) and changeup (21) Wednesday, a mix that came back to haunt him later in the game when Todd Frazier teed off on a fastball for a game-tying homer in the sixth inning. In many ways, the game was a breakthrough for the left-hander, who pitched without a knee brace for the first time and consistently hit 95-96 mph on his fastball after scrapping a month-long experiment with a new windup, but until he can get comfortable with a breaking ball, batters will ignore the few that he does throw and wait on his heater. "I need to work in the breaking ball more," said Rodriguez. "If I can throw it for strikes, strike one, show them I've got something [that breaks], it changes the eye levels."