When two Governors made Opening Day rosters—Ryne Harper for the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals and Tyler Rogers with the San Francisco Giants—we pledged to keep track of what they were up to each week during this shortened season. Here's what the duo have been up to since we last checked in, with Harper logging plenty of work in back-to-back appearances to start the week and Rogers playing a pivotal role in a trio of Giant victories.
Ryne Harper
Stephen Strasburg's season-ending carpal tunnel issue meant more leash for Harper this week after a brief stop at the Alternate Site before returning to the big club. He responded with two outings to start the week that will hopefully help him gain more traction in Washington's bullpen rotation.
Relieving Anibal Sanchez in mop-up duty after the veterans superb Sunday start against Miami, Harper went pitched two innings, getting strikeouts on Jonathan Villar, Matt Joyce and Logan Forsythe before a brief two-out Marlins rally in the ninth—which began with Harper already at 29 pitches, two off his then-season high—pushed across a pair of meaningless runs. He would finish with 37 pitches, the second-highest total pitch count in a single game of his MLB career.
Barely a day later, Harper again found himself called upon, and again delivered. Villar was once more struck out, and the two balls in play on Harper didn't leave the infield although Mel Rojas Jr. did beat an infield single on a throw up the line that could have been but was not ruled an error.
In 12.2 innings so far in 2020, Harper has struck out 16; his 11.4 K/9 is fourth among Nats pitchers with at least five appearances.
Genuinely unsure what this was about, but Harper got a mention there, so he can have one here.
Tyler Rogers
It was another trio of appearances for Tyler Rogers, who allowed his first run in over two weeks in his final outing of the week. Rogers week started with a pair of scoreless appearances in Giants wins over the Arizona Diamondbacks, before giving up a run in what was still a San Francisco victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In his first outing, Rogers pitched the ninth inning of a non-save situation against the D-Backs. After a leadoff single, Rogers induced a lineout, groundout, and flyout to wrap things up without much drama. Two nights later, Rogers started the eighth inning with a leadoff walk and a hit batter. With runners on first and second, Rogers got Starling Marte to ground into a 5-3 double play, before punching out David Peralta on three pitches to end the frame.
Finally, Rogers made his sixth appearance of the season against the Dodgers on Tuesday, entering the game with the Giants down a run and one out in the 10th inning. Rogers punched out the first man he faced before a throwing error by Brandon Crawford loaded the bases with two outs. Undeterred, Rogers struck out Will Smith to send the game to the bottom of the 10th where the Giants would tie the score at 7.
With a runner starting the 11th on second base, Rogers got Mookie Betts to fly out to start the inning, but a Corey Seager ground out moved the go-ahead run to third base with two outs. An infield single by Justin Turner gave the Dodgers the lead again and ended the night for our favorite submariner. Luckily for Rogers, a three-run bottom of the inning, capped off by a two-run homer from Donovan Solano, took him off the hook for the loss and got the Giants a win over the league-leading Dodgers.
