MIAMI — It wasn’t his best start of the season by any stretch of the imagination.
But Trevor Rogers simply returning to the mound on Saturday was a highlight.
He had gone more than a month since his last start for the Miami Marlins. He was away from the team completely for two weeks while dealing with a pair of family medical emergencies and then spent the final two weeks of August building up his pitch count for his eventual return.
His performance on Saturday, in a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies: Two earned runs allowed on six hits and two walks (one intentional) with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
The Marlins (57-79), who have jumped the Washington Nationals to get out of last place in the National League East, scored three runs in the eighth inning. Lewis Brinson’s two-out, two-run home run that clanked off the foul pole in right field giving the Marlins the lead for good. Miguel Rojas, who had three hits Saturday, drove in the first run with an RBI single that scored Bryan De La Cruz.
Saturday was just the fourth time this season Rogers did not complete at least five innings.
The 23-year-old left-handed pitcher, the Marlins’ lone All-Star Game representative this season and still a contender for National League Rookie of the Year despite the missed time, worked around a pair of two-out singles in the first and a one-out single in the second before recording a perfect third inning.
The fourth is when things unraveled.
Andrew McCutchen opened scoring with a one-out home run, sending an 0-1 fastball that was just outside the strike zone a projected 404 feet and into the lower level of AutoNation Alley in left-center field.
Rogers then issued a two-out walk to Didi Gregorious, had a throwing error on a pickoff attempt and gave an intentional walk to Ronald Torreyes before Ranger Suarez hit an RBI double that just stayed fair in left field to give the Phillies an insurance run.
Rogers gave up a leadoff single to Jean Segura in the fifth and got Bryce Harper to fly out to right before Marlins manager Don Mattingly made his way to the mound and took Rogers out of the game.
He threw 83 pitches, 55 of which went for strikes.
On the season, Rogers has a 2.52 ERA over 21 starts, the best qualified rookies and tied for sixth among all starting pitchers who have thrown at least 114 1/3 innings.
Rogers also entered Saturday ranked in the top 10 among qualified rookies in strikeouts per nine innings (second, 10.55), batting average against (third, .212), walks and hits per inning (fourth, 1.13) and strikeouts per walk (ninth, 3.23).
“What a great year he’s had,” Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said last month. “I know he got off to a hot start. His bumps in the road have been a little different. It’s been deeper counts and maybe a few walks, not that he’s went out and got banged around. Stuff comes and goes. Guys get tired and stuff backs up. He’s got to figure out how to pitch when he’s tired and he’s done that.
The Marlins tentatively planned to cap Rogers this season to about 175 innings. Considering how much time he missed, and that there are only 26 games are left in the season, Rogers is in no danger of exceeding that mark.
“As long as everything goes good physically, expect him to make his final starts,” Mattingly said. “We think it’s important for him to be able to finish out his year. You know he’s had success, but also he’s still a young guy and he’s still getting better and he’s gonna learn from every start. We saw that last year with him what he took into the winter. I’m sure he’ll still be processing the rest of the season.”
