Grayson Rodriguez has shaky return to mound as Angels suffer Freeway Series sweep

ANAHEIM, Calif. – 655 days. That's how long it had been since Grayson Rodriguez last threw a pitch in a regular season Major League Baseball game when he took the mound Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

That was back when he was with the Baltimore Orioles and was one of the hottest young pitchers in baseball. Days after his last game on July 31, 2024, which ended in a win for Rodriguez, he was placed on the 15-day injured list due to back discomfort and soon after that he was shut down for the season. 

2025 was even further marred by injury. Rodriguez dealt with a parade of elbow, shoulder and back issues until it was finally announced on August 4, 2025 that he would undergo elbow debridement surgery, ending his season before it even began. 

All of that led Rodriguez to Sunday. He was traded from Baltimore to Los Angeles in exchange for Taylor Ward in what was the Angels' biggest move of the offseason, but after a strong Spring Training, Rodriguez began his season on the injured list for a second-straight year, this time due to dead arm issues. 

"I can only imagine his emotions going into that start, first time since '24," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. "I thought the stuff was there… overall, there's a lot of stuff to build on and it was exciting to see him out there again."

It wasn't an ideal return to the mound, though. Rodriguez went just 3.2 innings while giving up seven earned runs on seven hits while allowing four walks and striking out four. 

His fastball velocity, one of his most highly touted skills, was sharp, at least. Rodriguez threw as hard as 99 MPH with his four-seam and sat mostly in the 95-97 MPH range, which bodes well for him in the future considering the dead arm issues that sidelined him at the beginning of the season. 

"There's a lot of baseball left, I think that's the thing, is getting this first one out of the way," Rodriguez said. "Obviously, there's some nerves. That's a good team [Dodgers]. I wish I could have pitched a lot deeper into that game and had a lot better result, but it's over with now and you look forward to the next one."

Rodriguez's issues throughout the game boiled down to control and hard contact. He often missed low, and his changeup was especially hard to locate. While none of the Dodgers took Rodriguez yard in his 3.2 innings of work, he did give up several hard line drives, often with runners in scoring position, that let the Dodgers get ahead of the game in a flash.

A five-run fourth inning, where Rodriguez found himself working with the bases loaded multiple times, spelled the end of his outing and he exited the game while the Dodgers led 7-0, a score they'd eventually add to for a 10-1 victory and series sweep.

Scoring Trouble in Anaheim 

While Rodriguez did have a shaky start, his offense didn't do him any favors, something that's become a worrying trend as of late for the Angels. Yoán Moncada scored the Angels' lone run in the bottom of the fourth with a RBI single, but runs have been hard to come by for the Halos as of late.

They've scored two runs-or-less in each of their last six games and they're 25th in MLB in total runs. The sweep they just suffered was a collection of poor performances on both sides of the field and that culminated in the Angels being outscored 28-3 in three games. 

"I've played this game a long time and I've gone through some ruts and you wish you had a simple answer, but there really isn't a simple answer," Suzuki said about the Angels' offensive troubles. "You've just got to continue to do your work and there's going to be one thing that's going to click and everybody's going to start hitting."