SAN FRANCISCO -- A few hours after Taylor Rogers was traded from the Minnesota Twins to the San Diego Padres, the Giants held a workout at Oracle Park. Tyler knew exactly what question was coming, and in response, he joked that the NL West was now the best-looking division in baseball. He also offered what turned out to be an ominous statement.
"I think there's going to be some bittersweet moments for me personally," he said.
The first one came right away.
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SIGN UP HERE The Rogers twins both pitched Monday night, Tyler getting the top of the seventh and Taylor the bottom of the ninth. That latter part was an issue for the Giants. They didn't want to see Taylor in this game, and he struck out a pair while closing out a 4-2 Padres victory.
That put a capper on a quiet day for the Giants lineup, but a historic one for the Rogers family, even if it was somewhat bittersweet.
Tyler and Taylor became the fifth set of twins to play in the same MLB game and first since Jose and Ozzie Canseco in 1990. Tyler took the loss, Taylor the save. They also both took home plenty of memories.
The twins walked in together about six hours before first pitch, Tyler having picked his brother up on the way to the park. They shared a field together for the first time since high school in the Denver area, and during batting practice they took turns introducing each other to teammates and coaches. Gabe Kapler and Bob Melvin sent them out to exchange lineup cards, too.
"Wow. That's real twins," Melvin said before the game. "You put them in the same uniform and you couldn't tell them apart. I know it's a special day. Yeah, there's twins and then there's twins."
Asked before the game if it would be a cool day, Kapler paused.
"I mean, cool in the sense that we want our twin to do well and not have their twin do well," he said, smiling. "It'll be interesting."
Tyler entered first and gave up a run on a play he would surely like back. With runners on the corners and one out, he got Manny Machado to tap a ball back to the mound. Tyler immediately thought of turning two, but he dropped the ball as he tried to pivot toward second. The go-ahead run raced home, and Kapler said later that his pitcher "probably" should have tried to get what could have been an easy out at home.
"That's a ball where he can go directly to the plate," Kapler said.
The Padres tacked on a second run for Taylor, who entered with two saves in the Padres' first four games. He allowed a single to Brandon Belt, but struck out Darin Ruf and pinch-hitter Heliot Ramos on six pitches to end it. While doing so, Taylor showed how the twins are actually similar on the mound, even though one is a lefty who throws in the mid 90s and the other a right-handed submariner.
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"We're both sinker-slider guys," Tyler said before the game. "We're both trying to throw a lot of strikes and we both do throw a lot of strikes. We pitch different -- but I pitch different than everybody. But really, if you look at it, we're very similar pitchers."
For the first time, they got to show that off in the same game, and even though it didn't end well for one of the twins, Tyler is still coming away from this series with a huge win.
By the time the clubhouse opened after the loss, Tyler was already gone. His wife, Jennifer, is giving birth Tuesday and he left Oracle Park to catch a red-eye flight to Indiana, where he'll become a father for the first time.
