Tigers Catcher Jake Rogers Accomplishes Something Unusual in Blowout Loss
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It was a game that the Detroit Tigers pitching staff would surely like to forget - well, most of them anyway.
An otherwise disappointing 12-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers offered a silver lining for Tigers back-up catcher Jake Rogers. Just days after his 31st birthday, Rogers entered the game in the ninth inning as the club's fourth pitcher of the day and recorded the first strikeout of his big league career.
The six-year MLB veteran is no stranger to the mound. Although Tuesday night marked Rogers' first pitching appearance of the season, he has toed the rubber on five previous occasions, including four times last year, for what is now a career total of 5.2 innings of work (all in blowout loss situations).
In 2021, Rogers scattered two runs and two hits but completed the eighth inning of a June game against the Chicago White Sox. Last season, he compiled a solid 2.45 ERA by allowing just one earned run and five hits across 3.2 total innings of work.
On Tuesday, the strikeout of Brewers infielder Joey Ortiz opened a scoreless inning of work in which he surrendered two base hits but stranded both runners.
Jake Rogers, the Knuckleballer?
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Rogers' strikeout of Ortiz was his impressive use of a knuckleball to prompt a swing and miss. And it apparently wasn't on a whim, either.
Rogers has reportedly tinkered with a knuckleball across much of his big league career, becoming more comfortable with his command of the pitch after making several appearances on the mound last season.
“That's like the first pitch I ever [threw],” Rogers explained last summer. “Literally, my dad, when I was like 10 years old, was like, 'Hey, throw this.' So I've been throwing a knuckleball forever. Who knows if it's good or not? I mean, it's good in catch-play, but when you get up there [on the mound], it's different.
Even fellow catcher Dillon Dingler has had to acknowledge the increasing effectiveness of Rogers' pet project pitch.
“It’s good, yeah,” Dingler said after Rogers tested out his knuckleball during a scoreless inning against the Blue Jays last July. “Don’t tell him that, though. He might start trying to throw it all the time.”
While the mood in the Tigers' clubhouse wasn't exactly celebratory after falling back to .500 at 12-12, Rogers' performance did help bring about a bit of positivity and levity in the aftermath of a blowout loss.
“I am glad that we got a little bit of positive energy out of Jake pitching, and then get a couple runs,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch acknowledged.
Whether on the mound or in his usual spot behind the plate, the light-hitting Rogers (career .199 hitter) remains a popular figure in the Tigers' locker room. Known for his humor, self-deprecation and, most notably, his signature mustache, he continues to bring plenty of character to what is a close-knit clubhouse.
But even though Rogers checked off a pretty cool career achievement on Tuesday, Detroit probably isn't too anxious to see it happen again.
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Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.