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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez was all smiles after the Altoona Curve's 8-1 victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels Thursday night in front of 3,814 fans at PNG Field.
That's as he deals with the ebbs and flows of his return to the field following offseason Tommy John surgery.
"Shoot, Tuesday was his first time behind the dish since injury and he's in a game," Hammock said. "That's tough to do. And he's even said 'I missed some balls and dropped a bunch of balls' and all that stuff's gonna go away the more reps, you know, by the end of the week, he'll be fine."
The biggest thing for Rodriguez is he's back on the field. He wasn't supposed to be this far along in his rehab progression.
"I was working a lot and tried to push my rehab assignment," Rodriguez said. "Being here now, it wasn't the plan, but how it was working, and how my recovery was, it was really good and now we're here."
Rodriguez notched the first hit of his rehab stint Wednesday night, a 110-mph double.
"I can't explain to you how good it feels right now, even though I have a lot of work to do, being back, it's really good," Rodriguez said.
The road back surely has been far from easy, and Rodriguez will be the first to admit that it was hard.
"Working the whole year, working my butt off and being hungry to get back," Rodriguez said. "It's hard to do the same thing every day, but being here back has made me feel really good."
Plenty of work still lies ahead of Rodriguez on his road to full recovery. For now, Rodriguez is focused on making sure he continues to stay healthy and be ready for next year.
"My goal is to go back home knowing every thing's right," Rodriguez said. "I want to go back home, but I have to work and get better. I have to get better and get stronger and begin to get better for next year."
Efficient offense
The Curve scored runs in all but two innings on nine hits while taking advantage of five Richmond errors.
"We did a really nice job of picking our spots and capitalizing on mistakes," Hammock said. "We were able to get on base. We're able to pick up extra bases on some of their mistakes, and then we're able to get the timely hits and drive them in. It was good job on the offense all the way around.
Matt Fraizer got the offense started with a home run in the second inning and chipped in a double and walk. Yoyner Fajardo added two hits, two walks and scored three times in the victory.
Termarr Johnson added a hit, a run and two RBIs while Tsung-Che Cheng chipped in a hit, two walks and two runs for the Curve.
Bullpen battles
It was far from the prettiest of games for the Altoona bullpen, but it was able to walk away with allowing only one run on six hits.
"It was a bend, but not break, kind of night," Hammock said. "In the way the game was going, it was a close game there for a while -- the backs were against the wall."
Emmanuel Chapman got the game started with three innings of shutout work and allowed two hits and two strikeouts. It was Blake Townsend who got the nod next when he tossed two scoreless innings and gave up only a single hit.
Cy Nielsen tossed the sixth and seventh innings and allowed one run on two hits and walked three. Jack Carey closed out the game in the final two frames and allowed only one hit, which came in the eighth inning.
"They got themselves in trouble early, and they were able to avoid a big inning, which was huge," Hammock said. "When the offense comes back and is able to add on late and continue to put up runs, it just creates that bigger gap, and it makes things a little bit easier."
Next up
Altoona sends LHP Anthony Solometo to the mound against Richmond. In his last outing, he gave up six runs on six hits in only one inning of action.