Alex Cora has to be smiling. For the third season in a row, Eduardo Rodriguez is slated to start on Opening Day. For the first time in his career -- knock on wood -- he actually will.
It was about 12 months ago that the manager of the Red Sox was trying to boost his pitcher's spirits after Rodriguez had been scratched from Boston's Opening Day start due to dead arm, a repeat of the year prior when Rodriguez contracted COVID-19.
"The way you're throwing," Cora told him, "at some point in your career, you're going to be an Opening Day starter -- maybe more than once."
In a packed house Friday at Comerica Park, Rodriguez will take the ball for the Tigers in their season-opener against the White Sox -- a decision A.J. Hinch made shortly after Detroit signed Rodriguez to a five-year, $77 million deal back in November.
"It's something special," Rodriguez said Wednesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "As a starting pitcher, that’s something that you always want to do. You want to be part of it at least one time in your career."
Rodriguez, who turns 29 on Thursday, has quietly been one of the AL's best starters since 2019. He finished sixth in Cy Young voting that season, and was arguably even better last season despite a career-high ERA. (He missed the duration of 2020 when he developed myocarditis from COVID-19.) He'll face a lineup on Friday that's poised to do a whole bunch of damage in 2022.
His plan is rather simple: "Set the tone, win the game and start the season on the right pace."
Rodriguez didn't pitch against the White Sox last season when they emerged as champs of the AL Central. He did pitch at Comerica, logging five scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts against the Tigers on Aug. 4. It's a park where he's pitched well in the past, not that he's all that concerned with the numbers.
"It’s no matter what field you’re in," he said. "If somebody hits the ball hard, it’s going to go out of the ballpark. So I’m just going to go out there and do the same thing I was doing with Boston -- just get outs."
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Boston, it turns out, is coming to town next week. After making his long-awaited Opening Day start, Rodriguez will turn around and face Cora and his former team.
"That’s something that I was waiting for," he said. "I didn’t know it was going to be that early, so I like it a lot. I talked to a couple of my teammates over there already and we're joking and everything. But as soon as we jump over the lines, it’s just another team that we’re going to face."
As for his new manager, Rodriguez has hit it off with Hinch. He said the two of them talk a lot, "about baseball, about family, about everything."
"That’s the way you create a relationship with somebody," Rodriguez said. "It’s really good."
And as for his new team, Rodriguez likes the Tigers' chances to make some noise this season, starting Friday in Detroit.
"You guys will see what we got," he said. "I feel like we have a really, really good team, and now we have (Austin) Meadows who’s a guy that I’ve faced a lot and I know the way he hits. I feel like we have a pretty good chance to make it to the postseason. We just gotta go out there and every day and do our work."