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Trevor Rogers sat at his locker early this afternoon with headphones on and his mind seemingly clear. Facing the Marlins for the first time didn’t tie his emotions in knots. He churned on the inside but played it straight.
Rogers grabbed his glove, headed to the bullpen to warm up and strung together another terrific outing. What he lacked was support from his bullpen. He wasn’t consumed with revenge. He just needed to be rewarded.
Gregory Soto let an inherited runner score after Rogers exited with two outs in the seventh, Seranthony Domínguez gave up an RBI single to pinch-hitter Jesús Sánchez in the eighth, and the Marlins broke it open with four runs off Scott Blewett in the ninth in a 6-0 victory over the Orioles before announced crowd of 34,332 at Camden Yards.
Among the failings for the Orioles (43-51) was the attempt to move six games below .500 for the first time since May 3, but they can still win their third series in a row for the first time this season.
Rogers carried a shutout bid into the seventh after tossing 6 2/3 scoreless in his previous start. Dane Myers singled with two outs and Rogers left to a standing ovation, touching the bill of his cap as he approached the first base line. Soto hit Kyle Stowers and Derek Hill singled into left field to break a scoreless tie. Hill was tagged in a rundown.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino thought about letting Rogers face Stowers but made the call to the 'pen.
“We were going back and forth on it," Mansolino said. "Just the way everything kind of set up with the bullpen. He’s at 100 pitches, which is part of the equation. We felt like that was going to be a huge at-bat in the game. Felt that was their biggest bullet right there, Stowers, and Soto’s been throwing the ball great. And we liked the idea of leaving the bottom of the order in the game and then not using their pinch-hitters right there.
"I think we put a lot of thought went into the decision and a lot of consideration, and I think sometimes decisions work out better than others, and that one probably just didn’t work out as good as some others we’ve made here recently.”
"He just said, 'Helluva job' and stuck his hand out," Rogers said. "There was a second I wanted to try to convince him to keep me in there. I did my job up to that point. I make a little bit better pitch to Dane and it's a ground ball to Gunnar. But tip your cap. It's a good pitch and he just found a hole. I did my job and trusted Soto, and I'll always trust Soto to come in there against a lefty."
The crowd reaction really touched Rogers, who took a lot of heat for his four poor starts last summer, as did the front office for the trade.
"Oh it was, woo, tried to keep my emotions under control," he said. "That meant the world to me, having that ovation with the fans. It really meant a lot. They love their baseball here. The fact that I could give 'em that performance in front of them, in front of this unbelievable crowd, it meant the world to me.
"It really came full circle. They were tough on me, but at the end of the day in the back of my mind, I knew I wasn't who I knew I could be."
Myers’ single was only the second hit off Rogers, who walked two batters and struck out a season-high eight. He has a 1.53 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in six starts.
"He threw the ball great," said catcher Jacob Stallings. "He looked great in the 'pen, so I was hopeful it would carry over and it did. First two times through the lineup he used a ton of fastballs and third time started mixing a little bit more. He was fantastic, really, really good."
Xavier Edwards doubled off Domínguez in the eighth, and a wild pitch and Heriberto Hernández's single increased Miami’s lead to 2-0. Blewett surrendered four runs in the ninth, punctuated by Edwards’ two-run shot. Stowers scored from second base on Hill’s infield single, with Stallings unable to handle Gunnar Henderson’s throw. Javier Sanoja had an RBI double in a disastrous frame.
The Orioles were shut out for the 10th time.
Domínguez allowed only his second earned run in his last 19 outings.
The Marlins traded Rogers at last summer’s deadline for Stowers and Connor Norby, who has a sore wrist and didn’t play. The lopsided nature of it no longer has the same tilt.
"It was very weird," Rogers said. "Had an adrenaline rush, definitely, in the first inning. I had a tough time trying to calm myself down, but just focused on my breathing, and once I got that third out, I was able to settle in and really make some pitches."
Stallings broached the subject with Rogers before the first batter stepped to the plate. Before Rogers got to the rubber.
"He really made it a point not to be too amped up," Stallings said. "He talked about it before the game and he talked about it on the way from the pregame 'pen. He’s been throwing so well lately that I think if he tried to do too much it would hurt him, and I thought he did a really good job of just making pitches. I know if we could get through that first clean he would settle in and get going and that’s exactly what he did."
"It definitely helped a little bit, but I knew that first inning was going to be a challenge," Rogers said. "After we got that third out, he came up to me, he’s like, ‘Great pitch right there, now we can settle in and really focus on the game plan.’ He did a great job back there again today."
Stallings has caught Rogers more than anyone else going back to their Marlins days. He was the ideal person to set the target.
"It’s been huge," Rogers said. "He knows me really well, and just to have that going into the start is huge and really get to build off what we had in Miami. He caught my first bullpen and was able to see the sweeper and the slider that have gotten a lot better since then and really able to mix those in now. It’s a lot of fun having him back there."
Rogers wasn't at his best when they were Miami teammates. Stallings arrived after the 2021 season, when Rogers was runner-up for National League Rookie of the Year.
"He just had trouble staying healthy for those two years I was with him," Stallings said. "He's healthy and confident and that helps a lot, but he’s also in a better spot. He has two breaking balls now that are both better than the one he had in Miami. He started throwing that two-seamer towards the end of when I was catching him but it’s a real weapon for him now too. So, a little bit different weapons but the same guy, too. He’s just healthy and confident and doing well.
"Super happy for him. He and I had lockers next to each other in Miami for two years and I used to always have to tell him to be quiet because he talked so much. But no, he hardly talked ever. I’m super happy, he’s a great guy. I felt really bad for him because he had a couple freak injuries in Miami that you know I mean, you have too many injuries, you start running out of chances, and he’s taking advantage of this one so I’m really happy for him."
Could Rogers have handled facing his former team six months or a year ago, when his career was in shambles?
"That’s a good question," he replied. "If I were to face them with the stuff I had last year, it probably would have been a 50-50 tossup. But with the work that I put in this year and where my stuff’s out now, I’m really confident going into it. But at the end of the day, they’re in the big leagues for a reason. Got to execute my pitches, and I was able to do that today."
The Marlins put two runners on base in a 25-pitch first inning after Ryan O’Hearn’s error and Otto Lopez’s two-out walk. Rogers recorded two strikeouts on 95.6 and 95.5 mph fastballs.
Stowers struck out on a sweeper in the second and Rogers fanned Hill at 95.7 mph. Two more strikeouts in the fourth came on Rogers’ sinker and sweeper. He retired 10 in a row before Myers’ leadoff single in the fifth, which also was the Marlins’ first hit.
Myers appeared to steal second base, but he slid past the bag and was out.
Hill struck out on a sinker in the fifth. Hernández struck out for the third time to end the sixth, this time on a changeup.
“He was good," Mansolino said. "The changeup in the first inning was coming out pretty hot. He was throwing some like 89-90 mph changeups there early on, so you can see he was a little juiced up. Last year, he wasn’t throwing 89-90 mph fastballs at time, so good indication as the improvement and the work that he’s done to make his stuff better. But definitely some energy there from him.”
O’Hearn had a shot at an RBI in the bottom of the first after Henderson’s two-out double. O’Hearn lined a single into right field, but Stowers threw out Henderson at the plate.
Marlins right-hander Janson Junk kept up with Rogers and surpassed him, blanking the Orioles in a career-high seven innings. He retired 14 of 15 before Henderson’s two-out double in the sixth, the only baserunner coming when Colton Cowser was hit by a pitch leading off the fifth. Cowser singled with one out in the seventh, stole second base and was stranded.
The offense couldn't break through and Rogers was stuck with a loss he didn't deserve. On the plus side, no one in the organization doubts whether he can keep pitching at a high level.
"I'm really liking where I'm at, but I don't try to focus on the future," he said. "I don't dwell on the past, either. I try to just present moment focus, day-to-day, stay within my process. It's helping me a lot this year and really just continue that focus day in, day out."
"The stuff’s good, the stuff’s really good," Mansolino said. "When I went out to make a change, behind the plate, putting (Alex) Jackson in, I was talking to Vic Carapazza, the umpire, about it. He had made the comment that both Rogers’ and Junk’s stuff was really, really good in that game. When the umpire says it, and we kind of see it, and the hitters are telling you, it’s probably pretty real.”
* Triple-A Norfolk reliever Keagan Gillies faced one batter and recorded the final out in the All-Star Futures Game. Double-A Chesapeake outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. went 0-for-2.
* O'Hearn led off the ninth with a walk to extend the Orioles’ streak to a franchise-record 172 games in a row since July 2, 2024.
* The Orioles are flying O’Hearn and his wife Hannah to Atlanta on a private charter for the All-Star Game.
Also on the flight will be Orioles home clubhouse and equipment manager Fred Tyler, who accepted an invitation to be in the home clubhouse at Truist Park to support Atlanta’s staff.
