Francisco Rodriguez suffers groin injury

The Baltimore Orioles suffered another loss on Friday night when reliever Francisco Rodriguez left the Orioles game against the Colorado Rockies in the eighth inning with a right groin strain. As reported by Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, Rodriguez appeared to injure his right groin while warming up, but entered the game in the seventh inning and retired the final two batters.  He allowed a lead off home run to Charlie Blackmon in the eighth followed by a single by Dexter Fowler.  At that time, Orioles' head athletic trainer Richie Bancells came out to the mound. Rodriguez proceeded to walk off the field limping. The Orioles can only hope that the injury to Rodriguez isn't serious.  As a former closer, he was the main candidate to take over some of the closers role with current closer Jim Johnson struggling. Rodriguez is 2-1 with 10 saves and a 1.87 earned run average in 34 games this season. Last year he had a 2-7 record and an earned run average of  4.38 in 78 appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers.  In 716 career Major League games, Rodriguez has 304 saves and a 2.66 earned run average.