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    Hector Rodriguez (Photo: Doug Gray)
    Photo: Doug Gray

    Reds MiLB Notebook: Rodriguez’s hitting streak goes to 12

    Doug Gray 20

    Hector Rodriguez entered Thursday night riding an 11-game hitting streak. The Dayton Dragons outfielder didn’t waste much time extending it to 12 games, picking up a double in the 2nd inning during his first at-bat. He’d add a single later, though it only became a single after the game was completed and was changed by the official scorer.

    For Rodriguez, it was his third straight multiple hit game. He’s gone 7-13 in the last three nights. During his hitting streak he has struck out just three times in 50 plate appearances. The hitting streak, and in particular the last few games, have helped push his season line to .310/.342/.443 on the season. On the year he’s struck out just 26 times (but also only has 12 walks) over his 270 trips to the plate.

    The End of a different kind of streak

    Jacob Heatherly threw two perfect innings last night for Chattanooga. It was the seventh game in a row in which he’d pitched without walking a batter. On the surface that is a solid run, but for Heatherly it was something that feels like it’s from a different universe.

    Injuries have plagued the left-hander throughout his career. Despite being drafted in 2017 he’s only thrown 169.0 innings in his career – and he was a starting pitcher for the first few years of his career. From 2019-2022 he threw 17.1 innings.

    Though he was oft-injured, Heatherly entered the year having pitched in 68 games. During that time he had never once gone back-to-back outings without a walk. That streak continued well into this season, too. In his 81st and 82nd games of his career he didn’t walk a batter. Both outings were 0.1 inning affairs, but still – it was the first time he’d ever accomplished back-to-back appearances without a walk. He’s kept that going by following it up with five more.

    Sporadic, but outstanding

    Gabriel Gomes signed with the Reds out of Brazil in the middle of the 2022 season. He only played in three games that season. He made his debut on July 19th and went 0-1. The catcher then didn’t play for a month before returning for two games before the season ended. He picked up a hit in each of those games, as well as drawing three walks.

    Last year he got out to a strong start, beginning the year with a 10-game hitting streak before going hitless in the next two games. Those two games were the last two he played on the year, missing the final eight weeks of the season. Gomes was hitting .375/.592/.531 at the time he went on the injured list.

    This season he’s been limited in how often he’s played. He’s had at-bats in five of the DSL Reds 12 games. But he’s back to hitting well as he’s gone 5-10 with five walks and just one strikeout.

    Parts of three seasons and he’s played in just 23 games, and he hasn’t even had a plate appearance in three of those games, but the production has been impressed. He’s hitting .413 with a .627 on-base percentage, and he’s slugging .522. He has 23 walks and 10 strikeouts in 75 career plate appearances.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    20 Responses

    2. Last year Rodriguez played 81 games in CF, but this year 0 games in CF. Is Jorge a better fielder than Rodriguez, O’Donnell, and Allen?

      1. Hard to say if he (Jorge) is better rather than getting priority time there to help transition from 2B to CF. He certainly is fast enough. O’Donnell’s scouting report from college said he could likely stick in CF. Allen, obviously, has the speed but I haven’t seen much recently on his arm strength.

        1. BA, from February, 2023, on Jay Allen: “He’s a plus defender in center with an average arm.”

          MLB Pipeline: Arm: 55 | Field: 50

      2. If we could get one of HRod, Allen, Jorge, O’Donnell, etc to hit something like .260/.360/.400, we’d have the heir to TJ Friedl and a possible all star (these days).

        1. Of those 4 Rodriguez leads with the BA. Allen is leading them in SB, SLG, OBP, and he’s tied with Jorge in HR’s.

          I would be very happy if one of those 4 is the heir to Friedl. I really thought Dunn would be pushing his way onto the roster at this point, but he’s having a hard time transitioning to AAA, much less the MLB. I haven’t given up hope with him, but it’s thinning.

        2. You have to think Dunn will be fine. He is just so athletic (he laid down an absolutely perfect bunt last night). He gets comped as a RH Friedl, which may be his ceiling, rather than a 25 hr/50sb guy we saw last year. His floor is Fairchild. And as a 15th round pick, it’s like, this kid can play.

      3. Jorge is a good fielder with the potential to be a very good one in center. Rodriguez isn’t nearly as fast and doesn’t look nearly as comfortable as an outfielder (particularly this year – where Jorge has shown a drastic improvement out there after getting his feet wet as an outfielder last year).

        1. Good info, thanks!

          Rodriguez kind of sounds like a good utility type, can play around the field a bit, but doesn’t necessarily have a home.

          It’s also good to hear about Jorge’s defensive potential, I remember people picking apart his defense last year. Now we just need him to cut the K’s down to last year’s rate.

    4. Rodríguez seems to be a outstanding contact hitter even with some pop. He’s hitting for a good BA and solid slugging however he is still undisciplined affecting his OBP. If he has no home defensively that would be a reason why he is not a ranked prospect yet…
      Let Gabriel Gomes more chance to play so we can see what he’s able to do in a larger sample size…

      1. HRod has been a ranked prospect pretty consistently since arriving from the Mets. This year, he is the Reds #13 player here at RML and at MLB, and #16 at BA. He also has played exclusively in the outfield since his first season in the states, 2022.

        1. Most of that’s true, Dave, but Rodriguez definitely played second base since coming to the US. He played second for the Mets in 2022 and the Reds in 2022. He hasn’t played any infield since the start of 2023, though.

        2. Kind of a strange move for the Reds. I know they have a ton of infielders but Rodriguez was a natural fit at second base. And I think his bat has more value there as well. Maybe they should move him back.

          1. Can you expand on what made him a natural fit at second base?

            And I’ll say this much – Rodriguez was faster before his leg injury. Since coming back from it he is slower than he used to be. He still has some speed, but not like he used to. Not that he ever looked great in the outfield, but with the speed you could understand why they’d try to make center happen.

        3. His size and power profile more at second than corner outfield. It’s kinda like putting McLain in right field. He’s perfect at second but I think as good as he is he would lose value in right. I don’t know how his defense was at second before the move but he was only 18 so either way there was no rush to move him. I think they just panicked because they have so many infielders.

          1. My brain barely functions these days, but somehow I remembered that (but I did double check before leaving the comment). Probably helped that I actually remember having a conversation with a baseball friend about it after that 2022 season.

    5. Baseball.

      Today in the Dominican, the DSL Rojos lost to the Padres Gold 19-7.

      The DSL Reds beat the Padres Brown 19-2.

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