Rodriguez scheduled to pitch tonight

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Nationals reliever Henry Rodriguez, held out of yesterday's game due to elbow soreness, is scheduled to pitch tonight against the Astros, manager Davey Johnson said.

Rodriguez met with Johnson yesterday and told his manager the elbow soreness he'd been feeling wasn't a product of pitching, but rather stretching in the trainer's room.

"It doesn't bother him to throw, it just bothers him stretching," Johnson said. "They do a lot of stuff in there when they're stretching, so he's sore. Every time I go in there, they stretch me and I'm sore. I computed that in, and he says he's fine."

After surgery last summer to remove bone chips from his right elbow, Rodriguez still lags behind the rest of the Nationals' relief corps. He was held back early in camp but has ramped up his work recently and appeared in five games in nine days from March 14-22.
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