A minor league baseball road trip can be uncomfortable adventure.

A long bus ride that arrives at the destination in the early morning following a night game.

Mediocre food on a tight budget.

A hotel room with a cranky air conditioner.

Willie Rios will avoid all but the long bus ride when the Aberdeen IronBirds, the New York-Penn League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, travels to Dodd Stadium for a weekend series with the Connecticut Tigers. It will be the only meeting between the two Class A teams in Norwich this season.

A St. Bernard School graduate and former Mystic Schooner, Rios will be staying at his family's house in Waterford and eating home cooked food.

"I can't wait," Rios said by phone on Tuesday. "I'm excited. I already have a bunch of friends texting me and calling me, asking me when I'm getting in and stuff like that. I have a bunch of people already planning on coming to the house.

"... As long as I make sure I get to the field on time and I'm not late to report, it's all good."

Rios, a 22-year-old left-hander in his third season as a professional baseball player, is unsure whether he'll pitch this weekend. He's recovering from taking a line drive off the ankle in his last outing on Aug. 7.

He's cleared medically to resume throwing. Another bullpen session on Wednesday will determine if he'll be available against the Tigers.

Of course, Rios would love to stand on the Dodd Stadium mound. It's a familiar place for Rios who played numerous high school and Christopher Potvin tournament games there. He expects about 35-40 of his friends and family to be on hand on Friday night.

Rios made his Aberdeen debut last summer in Norwich.

"It was cool to pitch back home," Rios said. "To pitch on a field that I'm so familiar with was the biggest thing for me. I was comfortable there, which is very uncommon pitching on the road, especially in pro ball."

Outside of one rocky outing on Aug. 2, allowing seven runs in one inning, Rios says he's having a decent season.

In nine appearances, including eight starts, Rios is 2-3 with a 4.86 earned run average. He's given up 35 hits and 20 earned runs in 37 innings, striking out 24 and walking 21.

Rios is making some adjustments in his mechanics, working with Aberdeen pitching coach Mark Hendrickson, the former major league baseball and NBA basketball player.

"We're just working on stuff mechanically and everything else," Rios said. "It's interesting, I guess, to say the least. I wouldn't say it's hard or not productive. But it's preparing me for the next level. It's one  of those things that you have to take a small step backwards in order to really progress in the game."

Hendrickson's focus is trying to get Rios to slow down on the mound.

Rios is rushing his motion, causing him to waste energy and push him toward the third base line.

He's pitched that way all his baseball life, so he's basically starting over.

"It's going to take time to get used to," Rios said. "I'm trying to break something that I've done my whole life. I'm essentially trying to change my life's work of pitching mechanics into something that we just started working on about two months ago."

Rios also has made strides in his mental approach, but admits that he still has work to do in that department.

Hendrickson preaches to Rios to let things go.

"That's my biggest downfall right now," Rios said. "I'll give up a base hit and instead of me just going get a ground ball here and turn a double play to get out of the inning, for whatever reason I'll try and throw harder and try and strike everyone out. His thing with me is, when you have men on base, that's not the time to try and turn into the hero."

The bumpy minor league road hasn't taken any enjoyment out of the game for Rios.

He can deal with the long bus rides, mediocre food and uncomfortable hotel rooms. He'll remember those moments and down time with his teammates more than the games when he's done playing.

There's nothing else that he'd rather do.

"At the end of the day, I'm playing the greatest game on the planet and I'm getting paid for it," Rios said. "So my job is literally to wake up every day and have fun."

g.keefe@theday.com