April 11, 2022: Twins Tyler and Taylor Rogers pitch in the same game as Padres beat Giants

Ah, opening week in San Francisco – Monday night, 51 degrees with a 24-MPH breeze. Perfect baseball weather, right? Well, 23,279 fans at the April 11, 2022, game between the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres thought so. They were rewarded for their hardiness with a variety of pitching styles, some spectacular defensive plays, and something that hadn’t happened before in the majors – twin pitchers appearing on opposing teams.1

Born on December 17, 1990, Taylor Rogers of the Padres and Tyler Rogers of the Giants were identical twins – but only by looks. Taylor was a lefty, Tyler a righty. Taylor threw a typical overhand delivery, Tyler was a submariner who threw what had been described as “an 83-MPH meanderball.”2

Taylor was a starter in the minors but moved to the bullpen when he reached the majors in 2016; Tyler, who debuted in 2019, had worked in relief throughout his professional career. In 2022 Tyler was still playing with the Giants, the team that had drafted him in 2013. Taylor had been a member of the Minnesota Twins for his entire career until he was traded to the Padres as the 2022 season opened, setting up the possibility of a brother vs. brother face-off in the National League West Division.

As they chatted behind the batting cages before this game, the Rogers twins realized this was the first time they’d been on the same field since high school in Littleton, Colorado.3

Before the game, Giants manager Gabe Kapler received his 2021 NL Manager of the Year Award after piloting San Francisco to a majors-best 107 wins.4 The twins delivered the lineup cards to the umpires, then headed to their respective bullpens.5

Alex Wood, using his usual three-quarter-slot delivery, made his first start of the year for the Giants. The 31-year-old lefty blew on his pitching hand to keep it warm but worked a quick first inning – Trent Grisham flied out and Austin Nola and Manny Machado each looked at strike three.

Nick Martinez was making his debut for the Padres as their number-five starter. He was returning to the US after four years in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He allowed one-out singles to Brandon Belt and Darin Ruf, but Belt was left on third – Joc Pederson looked at strike three and Brandon Crawford popped out.

Jake Cronenworth singled down the third-base line to open the second. Wood threw a few “back-foot” sliders to Luke Voit, who danced away from the first ones, then was hit on the “back-foot,” literally, putting Padres at first and second.

When Mauricio Dubón bobbled Wil Myers’ potential double-play grounder to third and settled for the out at first, San Diego had two runners in scoring position with one out. After a couple of mound visits to work on (or work around) PitchCom6 problems, however, Wood struck out Eric Hosmer and Jurickson Profar to escape the jam.

The Giants struck first in the bottom of the second. Thairo Estrada was credited with a single when his grounder bounced off shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s glove. Joey Bart ripped a double to the left-field wall – Estrada ran past third, heard the stop signal, and scrambled back before the throw came in. Steven Duggar struck out, but Estrada scored on Dubón’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.

Wood had a clean inning in the top of the third with two strikeouts and a groundout.

Belt’s broken-bat, opposite-field ground-rule double – which took an odd bounce after landing in short left, then wedged under the rolled-up tarp – got the crowd excited to start the home half of the third. Belt advanced to third on Ruf’s fly out. When Pederson was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and third with one out, the crowd was expecting good things – they were chanting “Let’s go Brandon!”7 Alas, Crawford grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Machado opened the fourth with a base hit and took second on Voit’s one-out bloop single to center. Myers hit a foul that would have landed a foot from the stands – but Mike Yastrzemski ran in from right field and made a terrific catch as he slid into the wall.

Wood picked a bad time to allow his first walk – his free pass to Hosmer loaded the bases. That brought Profar to the plate. The Padres fans in attendance were cheering for a repeat of his previous day’s grand slam against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They didn’t get that, but Profar chopped the ball off home plate and beat Wood’s throw to first, allowing one run to score. The slow-motion video showed the ball and Profar’s foot arriving at first base simultaneously. The Giants challenged the “safe” call,8 but it was upheld and the tying run stood.

Martinez struck out the side in the Giants’ fourth on 12 pitches. Austin Nola then put the Padres ahead with a one-out solo homer in the fifth, the ball landing a dozen rows deep in the center-field stands. That ended Wood’s evening. Zack Littell took over, striking out Machado and getting Cronenworth to ground out.

All Martinez allowed in the fifth was a walk to Belt. Dominic Leone was the next reliever in from the Giants pen. He allowed a two-out double to Hosmer in the sixth but no scoring.

After Martinez had contributed five innings and 83 pitches, Padres manager Bob Melvin turned to right-hander Steven Wilson, making his second major-league appearance. Pederson led off by placing a perfect bunt up the third-base line. No Padre was close enough to throw him out, so they looked at the ball hoping it would roll foul. It didn’t.

Pederson took second on Crawford’s base hit to center and third when Estrada grounded into a double play. Wilson was one out from getting out of the inning, but his 1-and-1 pitch to Bart sailed past catcher Nola’s backhand. Pederson came home, tying the game.

Tyler Rogers brought his unusual submarine pitching style to the mound in the top of the seventh. Both teams’ TV cameras caught Taylor watching from the opposing dugout. The Padres’ Kim grounded to short, and the usually sure-handed Crawford9 bobbled the ball so Kim, who ran hard out of the box (and lost his helmet on the way) beat the throw to first.

Grisham bunted his way on – Rogers fielded the ball cleanly but a little too late. Nola fouled out – Yastrzemski made another spectacular catch running in from right field, this time against the protective screen as he landed in the Opening Week bunting. Kim tagged and scrambled for third, putting the go-ahead run 90 feet away.

Machado grounded back to Tyler, who looked at second for the potential double play but bobbled the ball. Tyler took the out at first, as Kim scored for a 3-2 Padres lead.

San Diego’s Craig Stammen pitched a scoreless seventh with some help from his outfield defense. Although Yastrzemski was credited with his first hit of 2022 when Grisham trapped his liner to center, Stammen got Belt to pop out and got out of the inning unscathed when Profar made a tumbling catch of Ruf’s fly to the warning track.

Camilo Doval held the Padres scoreless in the eighth as the local gulls moved into the ballpark from the bay to start their cleanup duties.10

Pierce Johnson, the Padres’ third reliever, loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the eighth. The Giants fans stood and cheered as Dubón came to bat – but he struck out.

The Padres added an insurance run against José Álvarez in the ninth. Grisham worked a one-out walk, Machado a two-out walk. Grisham scored on Cronenworth’s liner to left, triggering a pitching change. Sam Long walked Voit11 to load the bases but escaped when Myers flied out. The Padres had left 11 men on base – but so had the Giants.

Melvin put the game into the record books when he called to Taylor Rogers to close out the Padres’ 4-2 lead. Twin brothers had appeared in the same game before, but never when pitching for opponents.12

Taylor, the older13 twin, recorded his third save of the season, allowing just one single, striking out pinch-hitter Heliot Ramos to end the game.

To mark the unusual event, the Giants presented Taylor with the game ball, even though they lost the game – and his brother was charged with the loss.14

Taylor finished the season with 31 saves, 4 holds, and a 4.76 ERA in 64? innings pitched between the Padres and the Brewers. Tyler earned 15 holds, had one blown save and a 3.57 ERA in 75? innings pitched.

The twins did not face each other again in 2022. After Taylor was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers on August 1, they came close – on September 8 Taylor earned his 31st save of 2022 in the second game of the Brewers-Giants doubleheader after Tyler pitched a clean inning for the Giants in the opener.15

The Padres finished in second place in the National League West and won the NL wild card and Division Series but lost the NL Championship Series to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants were third in the NL West, missing the postseason.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Tom Brown and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, and watched both teams’ broadcasts on MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202204110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B04110SFN2022.htm

Notes

1 AJ Cassavell and Maria Guardado, “Taylor Rogers ‘in a Weird Spot’ after Earning Save as Twin Tyler Takes Loss,” mlb.com, April 12, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/tyler-rogers-and-taylor-rogers-to-play-in-same-game-for-first-time-in-majors.

2 Scott Ostler, “Rising from Obscurity to Rising to the Occasion,” sfchronicle.com, September 21, 2021. Document | San Francisco Chronicle Archives (newsbank.com).

3 John Shea, “Rogers Twins Enjoy Earlier Reunion,” sfchronicle.com, April 12, 2022. Document | San Francisco Chronicle Archives (newsbank.com).

4 Shea.

5 Shea.

6 The communication device between catchers, pitchers, and infielders was new for 2022. Anthony Castrovince, “MLB Informs Clubs PitchCom is Approved for ’22 Season,” mlb.com, April 5, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/news/pitchcom-approved-for-use-in-2022-regular-season.

7 Although in 2022 “Let’s Go Brandon!” was a chant with political connotations, it seems likely that this chant was purely traditional baseball. For the political aspects, see Melina Delkic, “Why a Pilot Is Under Investigation for Saying ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’” nytimes.com, October 31, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/lets-go-brandon-southwest-airlines.html.

8 Given the temperature and the windchill, the group of umpires resembled a gathering of Michelin Men.

9 Crawford had won his fourth Gold Glove in 2021. He was not a finalist in 2022.

10 Jonathan Bloom, “Fowl Ball: The Secret Life of Seagulls at Oracle Park,” nbcbayarea.com, June 11, 2021, https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/digital-originals/fowl-ball-the-secret-life-of-seagulls-at-oracle-park/2566354/.

11 That was his eighth walk in just five games, leading the majors. That was an early-season anomaly – he finished 2022 with 55 walks, well behind Juan Soto, the major-league leader with 135.

12 R.J. Anderson, “Taylor and Tyler Rogers Become Fifth Set of Twins to Play in Same MLB Game, First Since Cansecos in 1990,” cbssports.com, April 12, 2022. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/taylor-and-tyler-rogers-become-fifth-set-of-twins-to-play-in-same-mlb-game-first-since-cansecos-in-1990/.

13 Susan Slusser, “Ex-Twin Joins Twin in S.F. Bullpen,” sfchronicle.com, December 31, 2022. Document | San Francisco Chronicle Archives (newsbank.com).

14 Slusser.

15 After the 2022 season, Taylor Rogers signed a three-year contract with the Giants, making him teammates with Tyler Rogers for the first time since high school.