K-Rod apologizes after disastrous performance

This is something you don’t see every day.

After closer Francisco Rodriguez’s terrible outing last night in Philadelphia, he issued an apology via his Twitter account, @El_kid_rod57. Here’s what he said (split into two tweets):

First tweet: “I so sorry guys I do want to apologize for the performance the I did today from the bottom of my heart I will get better bcuz”

Second tweet: “You guys deserve better then that am sorry”

If you didn’t already know, English is not K-Rod’s primary language. He also posted the tweet in Spanish.

Anyway, this is sort of a classy move, I suppose. Not that it puts him off the hook for what truly was a very hard inning to watch, but it’s good to see he at least cares.

If you didn’t see the end of last night’s game, though, let me attempt to paint the picture. K-Rod started off the inning fine, striking out former Brewer Laynce Nix on a nasty curveball down and in. After that, however, he completely lost it. He proceeded to walk Jimmy Rollins, then give up a single to Juan Pierre. K-Rod also walked Chase Utley to load the bases. At first, I thought these were just more of his “20 minutes of terror” antics, but when he gave up a two-run single to Ryan Howard, it was obvious that wasn’t the case. K-Rod still had a one-run lead at that point, but not for long, as he went on to give up the game-tying single to Carlos Ruiz. He then walked Hunter Pence, and the last few pitches of that at-bat weren’t even close. K-Rod was flying and falling all over the place with his delivery and follow-through- towards the plate, towards first base, back at the mound- everywhere. Anyway, then the inevitable happened: he gave up a walk-off sacrifice fly to Ty Wigginton.

K-Rod’s final line? 0.2 innings, three hits, four earned runs, three walks, and one strikeout. It marked the second straight appearance that he walked three batters.

But the circumstances surrounding this game made the blown save that much worse. First off, K-Rod was given a three-run lead to work with going into the ninth, and managed to blow it before recording two outs. Second, the Brewers had just been swept in Cincinnati and were looking for a great win over Roy Halladay and the Phillies. Also, the bullpen blew yet ANOTHER lead for Randy Wolf; he’s got to be on the verge of breaking some sort of record for the most blown saves by his relievers behind him after exiting the game. Lastly, K-Rod’s ERA ballooned to 4.47, and his trade value has easily plummeted.

Even after that rant, though, it was good that he apologized. Again, not saying that it by any means lets him off the hook; nothing- including apologies- can fix the way this awful season has gone.

But now we need to hope that K-Rod won’t go down the road of John Axford and continue blowing more critical games. The Brewers are already basically out of contention, but this season doesn’t need to be any more painful than it already is.