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. The regular season came to an end over the weekend, and with it the 2020 campaign for both.
Tyler Rogers
With four-straight scoreless outings to end the regular season, Tyler Rogers extended his scoreless appearance streak to eight. Despite throwing just 1/3 of an inning against the Rockies on Tuesday, Rogers picked up his third win on the year, thanks to a three-run bottom of the seventh by the Giants at Oracle Park.
The very next day, Rogers was tasked with getting the final two outs of the seventh inning against the Rockies. A Raimel Tapia lineout and a Trevor Story groundout to end the frame gave Rogers his National League-leading 10th hold of the season.
Making his third appearance against the Rockies in three days, Rogers took over a tie game in the top of the ninth on Thursday. A Kevin Pillar strikeout and Story groundout got things going for our favorite submariner, before Charlie Blackmon singled and was caught stealing to end the inning. Rogers was sent out to start the tenth inning, and punched out Josh Fuentes before Gabe Kapler made the call to the bullpen.
In his final appearance of the season, Rogers took over in the sixth inning against the Padres at Oracle Park. Rogers induced a flyout and a pair of groundouts to keep the San Diego lead at one, but the Giants were unable to comeback and ended up narrowly missing the postseason.
Rogers finished the season tied with Tony Watson and Justin Wilson for the National League lead in holds with 10. Rogers also posted three saves and three wins in the 60-game season, while leading the San Francisco Giants with 29 appearances on the season.
Ryne Harper
Harper made four appearances in the final week-plus of his season; alas, the defending champion Washington Nationals will not be back in the postseason. What followed were three sterling appearances and a season finale that he'd likely sooner forget.
Friday before last, on the night after our most recent installment went live on LetsGoPeay.com, Harper entered in the fifth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Miami with the Nats already trailing by six runs. Harper got the first batter he faced, Miguel Rojas, on a groundout to second before Lewis Brinson reached via infield single. An error by Trea Turner allowed Sean Rodriguez to reach via fielder's choice and put Brinson on third, with Brinson scoring on a Corey Dickerson single sandwiched between strikeouts of Chad Wallach and Starling Marte.
The following day, Harper was back again to close out the ninth against the Marlins. Rojas grounded out and Marte struck out swinging before Harper surrendered a Garrett Cooper walk. However, Jesus Aguilar flew out to center to end the inning and Harper's day on the mound.
Harper made it three appearances in as many days by appearing in the seventh inning of a Sunday doubleheader against Miami. Taking over in the seventh, Harper induced a Monte Harrison groundout to short, got Brinson to pop out to second and got a Wallach foul pop behind the plate to cement a 15-0 Washington win.
Had the season ended there, that would have been a high note to go out on—four innings without an earned run, four strikeouts. But alas.
Harper pitched in Wednesday's matchup against Philadelphia, to somewhat unhappy results: two-thirds of an inning and six earned runs allowed via home runs from Didi Gregorious and Andrew Knapp. If it couldn't be an outstanding finish to the season, at least it was historic.
There was also the Harper-versus-Harper matchup Nats fans pined for all summer.
Harper finished the year with 23 appearances, second-most among Nats behind only Kyle Finnegan. Remove his two tumultuous outings (Wednesday and a five-run outing against the Mets, August 12) and Harper's line for 2020 is 22.0 innings, 22 strikeouts and a 3.68 ERA. Harper's average vertical drop of 55 inches on his 204 sliders thrown in 2020 was the highest in baseball, and the 13 inches his slider moves away from right-handed batters was more than twice the league average. He also was in the 75th percentile in baseball in average exit velocity and his ERA to xERA difference of 2.90 was the 12th-highest differential in baseball.
