Red Sox's Eduardo Rodriguez: Throwing slider again

Rodriguez has been using his slider more often and getting good results with the pitch, Mark C. Volain of MassLive.com reports. "It's become a much more defined pitch so it's a much more usable pitch. He's been able to mix it in with the two other pitches that he has," manager John Farrell said. "I can't say there's a prescribed number to go out there and throw, but it's a good pitch and he's using it."

Analysis:

Since his return from the minors, Rodriguez has thrown his slider a bit more than 30 percent of the time, according to BrooksBaseball.net. Rodriguez threw the slider 32 times during Wednesday's loss, matching the number he threw in his previous start, but saw an uptick in strikes with the pitch, with 21 called strikes Wednesday compared to 19 last Friday. There are still issues he needs to overcome -- we'd like to see Rodriguez get deeper into games with more consistency -- but there are hopeful signs of improvement.