Following the Astros’ game on Tuesday night, Cecil Cooper pulled Pudge Rodriguez aside to tell him he was going to drop him in the order the next game.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” Rodriguez said. “[Cooper] talked to me last night, he wants to put Keppinger in the second spot. He can move the ball around; he can hit the ball all over the field.”
Cooper also noted that Rodriguez might have been pushing himself a little too hard the first two games and was perhaps a little too eager to please the hometown fans …
“He was trying too hard, I know he definitely was,” Cooper said. “…We kept telling him, when he’d come back after his at-bats, ‘Hey, you need to relax a little bit and do what you do instead of trying to do too much.'”
Initially hesitant to agree, Rodriguez eventually acknowledged he probably was pushing himself a bit.
“I was trying to do a little too much,” he said. “I was jumping a little bit.”
(Footer suspects) look for him to hit second when the Astros open their series in St. Louis Friday Link
Backe throws
Brandon Backe threw a 40-pitch all-fastball bullpen session on Wednesday as planned, and although he’s still a long way from returning to the mound in a real game,…Reporting “no tweaks, no pulls and no strains,” Backe confirmed he’ll throw another side session on Friday, when the team is in St. Louis. He’ll likely increase his pitch count to 50, and the intensity level will probably be a little higher as well.
“I let a couple go, just to test it out, to see how far I could go. For the most part, I was throwing only 70 percent. So far, it’s been good.”
“If it was up to him, he’d probably want to pitch next week, Friday, whatever,” Cooper said. “We have to slow him down. We have to make sure he is ready to go when we do send him out to pitch. It’s going to be a while yet.” Link