Texas Rangers face son of Pudge in series opener vs. Giants

The Texas Rangers will face the son of Hall of Famer, Pudge Rodriguez, in game one of a series vs. the San Francisco Giants.

Boy are we getting old! The Texas Rangers will face off against Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez’s son in the series opener in San Francisco tonight. That’s right, Pudge, now 46 years old, has a 26-year-old son pitching for the Giants.

His name is Dereck Rodriguez. While he has frequently been titled as “Pudge’s son” in his rookie year, Dereck is quickly making a name for himself in the big leagues. He is 6-1 with a 2.25 ERA in 12 starts this season. He’s gone seven innings in each of his last three starts, allowing three combined runs to the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Of course the offspring of perhaps the greatest throwing catcher of all-time is going to have a great arm. Dereck Rodriguez was actually drafted as an outfielder by the Minnesota Twins in 2011. It was 2013 when he was converted to a pitcher. The right-hander has had great success in his short time as a starting pitcher. He throws five pitches: four-seam fastball, sinker, curveball, changeup and slider. According to Fangraphs, Rodriguez throws his fastball just 34.6% of the time. His curveball is thrown 20% of the time and his sinker 18%.

Storyline aside, the Texas Rangers will have their hands full with the son of Pudge. After scoring a total of four runs in three games against the Oakland Athletics, Elvis Andrus and company will need to get going in a three-game set in San Fran. They’ll face Rodriguez in game one and left-handers Andrew Suarez and Derek Holland in games two and three.

Of course, facing former Ranger, Derek Holland, makes for a fun storyline as well. Though, the Rangers have already faced Holland once when he was pitching for the Chicago White Sox last season. They tagged him for five runs in five innings in that start.

Despite both teams being out of the playoff hunt, it should be a fun series. Pudge Rodriguez will have conflicting interests for probably the first time ever when watching a Texas Rangers game. Perhaps he’ll hope his son can pitch a shutout through nine innings and let the Rangers prevail against the Giants’ bullpen. Truthfully, he’ll be rooting for his son to earn the win against his Hall of Fame team.

Pudge can take a night off from being a Texas Rangers fan. Frankly, Pudge can do whatever he wants. As for the rest of us, let’s hope the Rangers can win all three games in the series.