Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Sure, it was one at-bat. But it was eight years in the making for Tyler Rogers.
Gabe Kapler called on the submarining righty he has trusted all year, through ups and plenty of downs, against baseball’s best hitter. The manager had Rogers earmarked for Mike Trout (and then Anthony Rendon), believing he was about to see what he has seen for two camps.
What Rogers has worked on since he was drafted as a Giant.
What Kapler called a “culmination” of the progress the 29-year-old has made. They have believed in Rogers behind the scenes and in public, and they saw that belief reinforced “live and in person, at the major league level.”
“I know that he’s had his moments where he’s given up some big hits,” Kapler cautioned after the Giants’ 7-2 victory at Oracle Park over the Angels on Wednesday. “But for the most part, he’s stayed off barrels, he’s attacked with strikes, he’s gotten weaker swings from some of the game’s best hitters.”
He got two weak swings from the biggest challenge he will get all year. Two fastballs got strikes in the eighth inning, Rogers jumping ahead to a 1-2 count. And so Rogers reared back and delivered a third, his fastest pitch of the night, breaking radar guns at … 84 mph. Somehow, against a pitcher who specializes in making hitters uncomfortable, Trout was late. He should work on his bat speed. The mighty Trout was out.
A good example of how funky Tyler Rogers is. Mike Trout swung through an 84 mph fastball. pic.twitter.com/thkHNCd9u0
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) August 20, 2020
What should instill further belief in Rogers’ big-league future is this was not a unique, one-off novelty; Rogers had faced Trout on Monday, too, inducing a flyout in a four-pitch at-bat. It’s possible and likely hitters will see Rogers better the more they face him, but early peripheral feedback has been positive.
The more concrete numbers are not as kind, Rogers’ ERA dropping to 7.62 after his clean inning. But many of the balls against him have found unfortunate holes for the Giants; his expected ERA entering action was 3.60. The Giants believe in the peripherals above the traditional.
And they believe in a pitcher who gets frequent ground balls and makes the best hitter in baseball look lost.
Austin Slater, who homered as DH, said there is no pain in his elbow while he swings.
Slater said the injury — a flexor strain in his right, throwing elbow — is similar, but less severe, than the one that he rehabbed for months after the 2018 season. Slater began throwing Tuesday and is two to three days away from being a defensive option, Kapler said.
“It’s something I’ve had before and it’s something that I’ve got to stay on top of,” Slater said.
Johnny Cueto, through translator Erwin Higueros, on whether he misses hitting: “I feel more comfortable this way. Less work.”
