Rodriguez More Than Man in the Middle

It is a joy to watch Francisco Rodriguez pitch.

His arm is live, his motion is flawless. His fastball jumps out of his hand, a skittering, weaving object. His slider sweeps, makes a giant arc so that it seems more of a curveball. His body, loose and limber, is always in balance. His eyes focus ahead, on the job to do and nothing else.

Until the pitching is done and then Rodriguez smiles, laughs or sometimes frowns.

Wednesday night at the pulsating Metrodome, where the 55,990 fans were standing and hollering in anticipation of watching a 20-year-old rookie who has been a big league pitcher less than a month fold and collapse, Rodriguez was a star.

Again.

We keep waiting for Angel Manager Mike Scioscia to bring in this wide-eyed kid from Venezuela one time too often. We keep expecting the Angels to discover that there is a situation too pressure-packed for Rodriguez, who will show some fear or hesitancy that will make him melt on the mound, force him to get wild with his fastball or weak-kneed with his slider.

But not yet. Not this time, not against the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League championship series.

In the seventh inning, with the momentum of a 6-0 lead having faded along with starter Ramon Ortiz’s concentration, the Angels led, 6-3. Brendan Donnelly had relieved Ortiz and gotten out of a sixth-inning mess.

And now it was Rodriguez’s turn. His job was to get the Angels far enough along for closer Troy Percival to get a save.

A month ago, Rodriguez was practicing for next year, auditioning for the Angels by helping them close on their first playoff berth since 1986. Now Rodriguez had appeared in three playoff games against the New York Yankees. He had won two of them and had become the answer to a trivia question: Who was the only player to get his first two major league wins in the postseason?

But in 20 days, Rodriguez has become another piece of this Angel puzzle. He fits naturally between Donnelly and Percival. Donnelly is 31 and needed 10 years to get to this spot; Rodriguez took about 10 minutes. Then the Angels get to one of baseball’s best closers.

So in the seventh, Rodriguez struck out his first Twin, Luis Rivas, on that slider, which swooped in at 84 mph and followed 94 mph and 93 mph fastballs. Next, leadoff man Jacque Jones flied out to left after getting behind in the count, 1-2. It was the slider again, after three fastballs, that did the trick. Cristian Guzman, who had two hits and scored a run, struck out looking helplessly at a 94 mph fastball. Rodriguez pounded his glove and grinned as he walked off the mound.

And he got to start the eighth in style, striking out Corey Koskie and getting designated hitter David Ortiz to line to first on an 0-1 pitch.

But Torii Hunter walked and Doug Mientkiewicz followed with a single, and as pinch-hitter Bobby Kielty came to bat, Scioscia called for Percival. Rodriguez walked out of the game and he was talking to himself, enthusiastically.

“I was so mad,” Rodriguez said, “because I gave up the single on an 0-2 pitch, the slider, and I shouldn’t have done that. I should have got that out.”

Said Angel starter Kevin Appier: “That’s what you like about the kid. It’s not how he handles himself when things are going easy. It’s how he handles himself when things aren’t going so easy. He understands.”

For 30 minutes after the game, Rodriguez hypnotized listeners with a story of poverty, sacrifice, love, despair and joy.

Rodriguez has 13 brothers and sisters. When he was two months old, his parents split.

“They gave me to my grandmother and my grandfather, Isabel and Francisco Rodriguez,” Rodriguez said, “and they took me and raised me and made me happy. It was not easy. We were poor, yes. I would wear the same shoes for two years or three. But we always had food and we always had love.”

When he was 2 or 3, Rodriguez said, his grandfather, whom he calls “Dad,” started taking Rodriguez to watch his uncle play for a college team in Caracas, where he grew up.

“I loved watching my uncle,” Rodriguez said. “And I wanted to play this game all the time.”

He speaks every day to Isabel, his mother in every way except birth. He tells her how much fun he has. She tells him to eat and sleep well and stay healthy.

Rodriguez says he feels no nerves when he walks onto the mound. “What I know is that baseball is fun and this is fun and sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if this is real. Am I really in the playoffs? Am I really pitching almost every day? I pinch myself and it hurts, so, yes, this is real.”

Minnesota Manager Ron Gardenhire seemed to need to rub his eyes after he watched Rodriguez. “First time we’ve seen the kid,” he said. “Wow, the ball was jumping out of his hand.”

It jumps, it hops, it roars, it soars in so many ways. It comes from a talented and competitive kid who could hardly wait to shower and call Isabel and say that, yes, he was eating and sleeping well and staying healthy. And making hitters ill.

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com