Here’s what I think about Eduardo Rodriguez: he’s electric and capable of dominance until he’s not. From my spot on the couch, it’s very easy to point at the screen and say, “It’s a mental issue. When things don’t go his way, he falls apart.” Because that’s what my eyes tell me. In six games started so far, he’s either been lights out or gone to pieces after defensive lapses. But who knows? It could be random, or it could be something else entirely.

After retiring 10 straight Baltimore batters to start the game and being spotted a one-run lead, Rodriguez gave up a clean double to Chris Parmelee. He got the next batter, Nolan Reimold, to offer at a low pitch with a check swing, but Reimold made contact and the ball bounced to Rodriguez’s right. He checked to see if he could get Parmelee at third (he couldn’t), had to rush his throw to first to try to get Reimold, and threw it away. Parmelee came around to tie the game, and the wheels came off from there. Gordon Edes thinks it’s because he went to the stretch, but whatever the cause, the results were: two-run home run, single, single, double (scoring two runs), single, sacrifice fly. Alexi Ogando came in to record the last out of the 4th. 6-1, Orioles.

But the farther back we’ve gotten in the playoff race (ha), the more I’ve come to expect a little fight from the Sox. And they did fight back, putting together singles from Napoli and Sandoval for Alejandro De Aza to knock in with a home run, his first in Boston, wrapping one around Pesky’s Pole.

But Tommy Layne and new call-up Jonathan Aro weren’t effective enough to keep the Red Sox deficit to 2 runs, giving up 2 more over the course of the 6th and 7th innings. Xander Bogaerts did his best in the 7th inning, bringing Betts in from first with an RBI double and scoring from third on a wild pitch, but that was the end of the scoring. Let’s move on.

Actually, wait. Jackie Bradley, Jr. nailed David Lough at home on a fly ball to right field in the top of the 9th, and MLB did a cool video segment thing that you should watch.

Notes:

• Mike Napoli broke out of his 4-game hitless slump, more or less, by going 2-3 with a garbage ground rule double and a hit-by-pitch.

Bonus! Celtics Draft Analysis with as Much Optimism as I Can Muster

Full disclosure, I fell asleep before the Celtics’ second 1st round pick.

16th pick: Terry Rozier – No more Phil Pressey? I mean I love the guy, but Rozier has to be an upgrade. Other than that…gimme a break, I have no idea. I can just parrot stuff I’ve read about him if you want. He’s the next Marcus Smart! Wait, don’t we already have him? Hmmmm. Seems to rebound well. Looks like he makes his free throws for the most part. Active hands on defense. Not a ton of assists.

28th pick: R.J. Hunter – You remember this, right?

Clearly a deadly sharpshooter with cojones the size of watermelons.

33rd pick: Jordan Mickey – Automatic 4 blocks and 10 rebounds a game. Boom. For real though, he had 6 or more blocks 10 times last year. Not bad.

45th pick: Marcus Thornton – Good shooter, but I feel like we’ve seen this story before with Celtics draft picks. Not to mention, he’s probably not even as good as the Marcus Thornton we had last year.