Infielder Luis Rodriguez received a clean bill of health and returned to Tacoma of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League on Sunday.
Rodriguez, a veteran of six major-league seasons, including beginning this season with the Seattle Mariners, spent the previous three days on a rehabilitation assig
nment with the AquaSox. Those were his first games since being sidelined June 16 because of a sprained right elbow suffered while playing for Tacoma.
Rodriguez was originally supposed to stay one more day with the Sox, but after making it through three games unscathed he was shuttled back down I-5 to triple-A.
“They had to have somebody come and pick up his stuff and take it to Tacoma to play,” Everett manager Scott Steinmann said about the last-minute change of plans.
“He came here, did some work here with us early in the days, played two days at short and looked like he was throwing OK,” Steinmann added. “He’s got a little more strengthening to do and a little more confidence to build, but I think he did everything he needed to do here.”
Rodriguez went 3-for-9 with two walks in his three games with Everett. He fielded nine of 10 chances cleanly at shortstop.
Go east, young men
The road to the playoffs for Everett winds through the East.
In order to make the playoffs the Sox need to finish first in the West Division during the second half of the Northwest League season. But a quirk of the scheduling means the Sox will have to accomplish that feat primarily against teams they’re not racing against. Of Everett’s 38 second-half games, 25 come against East Division opponents. Just 13 come against their West Division rivals, and none of those are against current West Division leader Salem-Keizer as the 12-game series between the Sox and Volcanoes is already complete.
“You’d like to have it within your division,” Steinmann said. “I know scheduling is very difficult, with some teams having time constraints on their field. You’d like to start in your division and end in your division each time. But I don’t make the schedule, I just work the games. There’s always scheduling conflicts every year. You just deal with it and move on.”
Extrano returns
Infielder Jetsy Extrano has rejoined the Sox. Extrano began the season with Everett, batting .250 in five games before being promoted to Clinton of the Class A Midwest League. The 22-year-old from Venezuela hit .176 in 21 games in Clinton.
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