Pirates closer Richard Rodriguez completes reliever's equivalent of a perfect game

May 5—When Austin Nola hit a deep fly to left field, the Pittsburgh Pirates had to hold their breath a moment before Ka'ai Tom made a catch at the warning track.

Even before getting the final out of the 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night for his fifth save of the season, Richard Rodriguez had clinched something special.

The Pirates closer completed the equivalent of a reliever's perfect game, retiring 27 consecutive batters without allowing a baserunner. It required 101 pitches over nine innings across eight games, and Rodriguez struck out six without allowing a hit, walk or hitting a batter with a pitch.

"He goes right after people," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. "Command of the fastball, execution, he just does it. We've talked about guys with no heartbeat. He may be the captain of the no-heartbeat team, because he really doesn't let much affect him."

Rodriguez, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander, has pitched 23 consecutive scoreless innings and hasn't allowed a run since giving up a walk-off home run to Eric Sogard in a 7-6 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 29, 2020. Rodriguez has been so dominant this season that he has given up only one walk — to Joc Pederson of the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day — and one hit — a single to the Padres' Eric Hosmer on April 12 — that was followed by striking out Wil Myers. So the Rodriguez streak of perfection actually is sitting at 28 consecutive batters.

"Any time that Richie comes out to pitch, not just myself but everyone feels confident that we're going to be able to get out of that situation," Pirates third baseman Erik Gonzalez said. "We know he's going to get all three outs. It's great. I love it. I love watching him pitch. But, more than anything, what we all feel — including myself — is confidence he's going to get the job done."

On Tuesday night against the Padres, Rodriguez entered with a one-run lead in the ninth and got Wil Myers to swing at the first pitch and ground out to third. Rodriguez then recovered from throwing three straight balls to work a full count against Jake Cronenworth, who flied out to center for the second out. Nola fouled off three of the first six pitches he saw before his deep fly was tracked down by Tom.

While Rodriguez relies primarily on a four-seam fastball that sits at 93 mph, Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said the key is his ability to hit spots in the strike zone.

"He's got such great deception and with the way he throws the ball, and his ball has such great life on it that, and he's been locating really well," Stallings said. "I think that kind of gets overlooked. People kind of focus on how he throws a lot of fastballs, and it's not at a premium velocity, and he's been locating really well I think, and using the bottom and the top of the zone really well, so he's just, obviously, been phenomenal."

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .