SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Taylor Rogers struggled to find the right words through all his emotions after he and twin brother Tyler pitched in the same major league game wearing opposing uniforms, each part of the boxscore for a moment they had envisioned for so long.
Taylor pitched the ninth inning to earn his third save in San Diego’s 4-2 victory against losing pitcher Tyler Rogers (0-1) and the San Francisco Giants on Monday night. They even stood in for their managers exchanging the lineup cards, startling the umpire crew before posing for a photo with them.
“I don’t know if I even have the words yet,” said Taylor Rogers, acquired by the Padres from Minnesota last Thursday ahead of opening day. “Really, really cool. I want to thank Bob Melvin and Gabe Kapler for letting us do the lineup cards. That was a special moment and got some good pictures from that, too. I’m so blessed. I can’t believe it’s happening.”
Tyler immediately left the ballpark and the state to go welcome his first child, a boy.
“Next week’s going to feel dull,” joked Taylor, greeted by the game ball already authenticated and in his locker.
Photos showed similar mannerisms, to which Taylor said “that’s how twins work.”
The brothers chatted behind the batting cage before the game, then later exchanged the lineup cards at home plate and posed for a photo with the umpire crew. They didn’t know that was part of the plan.
“Probably if you put them in the same uniform you couldn’t tell them apart,” said Melvin, the Padres’ manager. “I know it’s a special day for both of them being able to be on the field together. There’s twins and then there’s twins, and that is a difficult one to tell apart.”
Hours later, Taylor Rogers was summoned to close out the game and hang his brother with a loss.
“I thought about that as I was running out to the mound — this is putting me in a weird spot here,” he said. “It’s OK, because the relationship that we have, it’s not … I’m not going to go over to him and say, ‘Ha, ha.’ I’m going to go over to him and say, ‘Dude, how freakin’ cool was that?’”
