GRAND CHUTE − One couldn’t help but think a couple years down the road about what Manuel Rodriguez will look like in the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation if he continues to pitch like he did in Friday night’s Midwest League season opener.
Rodriguez, who is just 19 years old, turned in a sparkling performance for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in a season-opening 4-1 loss to the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Neuroscience Group Field.
He struck out the side in the first inning on 13 pitches, struck out two more in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth and the one batter he faced in the fifth inning.
“The kid is pretty good,” Timber Rattlers manager Victor Estevez said. “The ball was cutting pretty good. He was getting a lot of swing-and-misses.
“He was able to strike out 11 guys in his Wisconsin debut. That was outstanding to see.”
Rodriguez did all that on 62 pitches.
“I want to thank God for helping me today,” Rodriguez said through an interpreter. “I felt a little nervous in the first inning but I got through it quick and settled in after that.”
Matt Wood, who was behind the plate catching Rodriguez, was impressed.
“It was unbelievable,” Wood said. “It’s like he placed the ball where he wanted it every single time. It’s really impressive for his age.
“He and I had a really good connection. We were on the same page, so it was a lot of fun.”
While those with scorebooks may have noticed Rodriguez’s strikeout total building, he didn’t.
“I was just trying to follow the game plan,” Rodriguez said. “I was trying not to pay attention to that.”
Rodriguez and Wood stuck to the game plan of staying away from the hot zones of the Cedar Rapids hitters and putting his pitches in areas where he would have success.
The lone run allowed by Rodriguez came in the fourth inning on a pair of walks and a single to right field by Billy Amick that scored Kyle DeBarge.
Rodriguez wasn’t the only pitcher adding to Wisconsin’s strikeout total.
Brian Fitzpatrick, who allowed three runs over two innings, struck out two, and Aiden Maldonado struck out three to bring the total to 17.
The only real rough patch for the Timber Rattlers pitchers was Fitzpatrick’s second inning of work where there were two singles, a walk, a double and a pair of errors.
Offensively, it wasn’t a great game for Wisconsin, which finished with five hits.
The Rattlers loaded the bases with one out in the first inning on singles by Yophery Rodriguez and Blake Burke and a walk to Wood but couldn’t score.
From then until the ninth inning, the Rattlers had only four base runners on three walks and an error.
In the ninth inning, they plated a run on singles by Wood, Juan Baez and Tayden Hall.
Cedar Rapids pitcher Charlee Soto, who is the Minnesota Twins’ eighth-ranked prospect, was in the upper 90s and hit triple digits with his fastball on a few occasions.
“He had some good velocity and his ...
