Tourists' Rodriguez bests brother in gem

Helmis and Herlis Rodriguez share a lot in common. Similar faces, the same birthday, the same birthplace, the same parents. The 20-year-old Venezuela natives are twins, and on Sunday, they shared the same field for the first time as professional ballplayers.

They did not, however, share similar results.

Helmis Rodriguez, the Rockies' No. 30 prospect, allowed two hits and two walks over seven innings to lead Class A Asheville to a 2-0 victory over Herlis and Lakewood at FirstEnergy Park.

Gameday box score

"The thing I thought about during each of their three at-bats against each other was, 'How often did this same matchup happen in the backyard or the street or the local field somewhere?" Tourists pitching coach Mark Brewer said. "This is something that's happened throughout their lives, and today, it happened as pros. One of them had to come out on top, and luckily for us, it was our guy."

Helmis retired Herlis in each of their three appearances against one another -- getting him to ground out to first base in the second inning, striking him out looking in the fifth and setting him down on a bouncer to second in the seventh. In that final at-bat, the Tourists southpaw had to cover first to record his final out of the day. Upon reaching the dugout, he was met by Brewer, who told him he was done and gave some other advice that he chose to ignore.

"He brought the ball with him to the dugout and I said to him, 'You need to sign that ball and give it to your brother to show off,'" Brewer said. "He just told me, 'No,' right away and said, 'I'm signing this and giving it to my mother [in Venezuela] and giving this to her for my Mother's Day present.' That's a fine way to do it."

Rodriguez lived on the ground in his gem, producing 12 ground-balls outs against four flyouts and five strikeouts. The two hits he allowed -- singles by Chace Numata in the first and fourth -- just found the right spots. One squeaked past shortstop Luis Jean and the other just evaded Rodriguez himself. He needed only 94 pitches to complete seven frames and, although the pitching line was stellar, Rodriguez's stuff wasn't always, according to his pitching coach.

"I'll tell you what, he didn't really have his best fastball command today, but he sure offset the hitters' tempo," Brewer said. "He kept them guessing and kept them from squaring balls up, and that's what results in a number of ground balls, like he had today. ... He just battled without his best stuff and, from that standpoint, it was a good start out of him."

The gem was the latest in a line of strong starts in Rodriguez's introduction to full-season ball.

The 5-foot-11 lefty improved to 3-0 with a 2.02 ERA (sixth-best in the South Atlantic League), a 1.26 WHIP, 24 strikeouts and only eight walks through his first six starts (35 2/3 innings) in Class A ball. Last year at Class A Short Season Tri-City, he impressed by posting a 1.97 ERA and 1.09 WHIP over 91 1/3 frames.

There were questions about whether Rodriguez would be able to carry those results into full-season circuits. His fastball and curve only received 45 (slightly below-average) grades from MLB.com this offseason, and Brewer said his slider is just behind the curve. His greatest weapon is the changeup, which got an above-average 60 grade and is a great offering for inducing ground balls, like Rodriguez did Sunday.

"His fastball today was around 90 mph and his changeup actually averaged 79. That's just perfect," Brewer said. "If you're getting 10-11 mph off your fastball, that'll get tons of guys off on their front foot."

Although he finished 0-for-3 with a strikeout, Herlis Rodriguez contributed a pair of outfield assists from right, throwing out Omar Carrizales at third base and Dom Nuñez at second.

Carrizales led the way for the Tourists offensively, going 2-for-2 with two walks, two stolen bases, an RBI and a run scored from the top of the lineup.