Endy Rodriguez started at catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies. Due to elbow discomfort, Rodriguez was removed from the game in the top of the second inning, before Rodriguez even had an at-bat.
Henry Davis took over for Rodriguez and caught the rest of the game, without skipping a beat. In his first trip to the plate, Davis narrowly missed a home run. He took a good slider from the Phillies’ Joe Ross on the outside edge and nearly muscled it out to left field.
In his next time up, Davis fouled off multiple pitches with two strikes and fought back to a full count. With the count full, Davis saw another low and away slider, this time from Alan Rangal, and put it in the seats to tie the game at four.
Pirates manager Don Kelly raved about Davis’ preparation and his ability to perform on a moment’s notice.
“He never takes a pitch off. He’s locked in from pitch one until the end of the game, whether he’s starting or he’s on the bench,” Kelly told the media in his post-game press conference.
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Davis has appeared as a substitute five times this season and has two doubles and two home runs in ten at-bats. His fourth inning home run turned out to be what the Pirates needed to force the game to extra innings, when Nick Gonzales hit a sacrifice fly to walk-off the Phillies, 5-4.
Endy Rodriguez is listed as “day-to-day” with an elbow injury, so Henry will likely do the majority of the catching until one of Rodriguez or Joey Bart returns from injury.
More MLB: Pirates’ Endy Rodriguez Exits Game Early With Injury
Featured image via Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images