Pitching with a heavy heart, Marlins’ Trevor Rogers continues dominant start to season
Trevor Rogers had just finished his latest stellar start to this young season — six shutout innings, seven strikeouts, zero walks — to help the Miami Marlins defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-0 to open a three-game road series.
He had just finished answering questions for nearly six minutes about his start to the season, his budding relationship with catcher Sandy Leon, how he gets a little more excited when he’s facing the likes of Jacob deGrom and Corbin Burnes, his willingness to use his fastball up in the zone, his ability to shake off a bad pitch or a bad result and focus on the present.
But his mind wasn’t focused on the game at that point. Not entirely anyway.
Rogers, the 23-year-old lefty who is off to one of the best starts in baseball, was pitching at American Family Field on Monday night with a heavy heart.
“So yeah, this game was really important to me,” Rogers said, fighting back tears. “One of my good friends growing up with, played basketball with, went to school with — elementary all the way through high school. He lost his life a few days ago. So, this game meant a lot to me and to his family. So I just want to reach out to the Gonzales family back home. I know they’re going through a lot right now. And I just wanted to dedicate this game to Carlos. He was a damn good dude. I’ll miss him a lot. So this game was dedicated to him.”
Rogers’ eloquence in paying tribute to his fallen friend matched if not exceeded the work he has been doing on the mound.
That pitching success continued Monday, as he went toe-to-toe with the hottest pitcher through the first month of the Major League Baseball season.
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Rogers dominated with his fastball, which topped out at 97.5 mph, induced seven swings, tallied another 12 called strikes and was effective almost all of the 56 times he threw it.
He mixed in 21 changeups and eight sliders on the night as well.
The end result: He gave up just six hits, all singles, and didn’t allow a runner past second base. Each of his first three innings ended with double plays. He struck out the side on 14 pitches in the fourth.
“He’s come from a shy, timid young guy to very confident in himself,” said Marlins outfielder Corey Dickerson, who had three hits and three RBI in the win. “He’s a hidden bulldog. He likes to compete. He goes after guys now. He’s not scared at all.”
The results are coming with it.
Through five starts this season, Rogers has a 1.29 ERA, which ranks third in all of MLB behind only deGrom (0.31) and the Kansas City Royals’ Danny Duffy (0.39).
He’s averaging 12.21 strikeouts per nine innings, the 10th-best mark in the league and the best for a left-handed starting pitcher.
He has a 36.5-percent swing-and-miss rate, the fifth-best mark in the league among starting pitchers who have had at least 200 pitches swung at.
He has a 34.7 percent called strike plus whiff rate, the 10th-best mark among starting pitchers who have thrown at least 300 pitches this season.
He has thrown 13 scoreless innings over his last two starts with Leon behind the plate. In that span, Rogers has recorded 15 strikeouts against just one walk.
“He just kind of keeps rolling,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Really, there’s not a whole lot more to say. He just kind of continues on that same path. We kind of talked about him a lot all spring and, kind of the mission — not necessarily the mission, but just the growth in spring training, physically, maturity with his work.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 12:10 AM.
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