MILWAUKEE — Francisco Rodriguez can definitively say his trade from the Mets to the Brewers worked out for the best.
“I’m winning, and [the Mets] needed pretty much to get rid of me,” Rodriguez said yesterday after pitching a scoreless eighth inning in the Brewers’ 9-6 victory over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the NLCS.
Though Rodriguez is not closing with the Brewers, he expects he will be signed this offseason by a team in need of a closer. He says he holds no grudge toward the Mets, who traded him during the All-Star break rather than risk the possibility he would finish 55 games, triggering a $17.5 million option for 2012.
The Brewers eventually bought out that option, but it didn’t make a difference in the manner Rodriguez was used: John Axford remained the Brewers’ closer, and Rodriguez ended the season with 38 games finished. Rodriguez says there were conversations with the Mets about making the vesting option disappear, but nothing materialized.
“After the storm, the sun came out for me, finally,” Rodriguez said, referring to his arrest and guilty plea last year for assaulting the grandfather of his children during a post-game argument at Citi Field. “That’s what I always waited for: Trying to put behind me a lot of negative stuff and be able to enjoy the game once again and pretty much be what I want to be, which is on a championship team.”
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After Ryan Braun‘s two-run homer in the first inning, Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia drilled Prince Fielder, prompting plate umpire Gary Darling to issue a warning to both dugouts. The game proceeded without incident from that point.
“I’m sure the umpire and crew knows it — we’ve had our disagreements,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said, referring to the bad blood between the teams. “I certainly can’t fault the umpire.”
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The Brewers’ six-run fifth inning tied a franchise record for most runs in an inning of a postseason game. In Game 4 of the 1982 World Series against the Cardinals, the Brewers scored six runs in the seventh inning. . . . In the previous 19 NLCS, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the series 16 times.