Detroit — Face it, Jake Rogers is inimitable.
The Tigers staged a Jake Rogers lookalike contest before Saturday’s game, but there was no mistaking the real deal.
Rogers, hitting ninth, had a pair of RBI knocks to help send the Tigers to a series-claiming, 4-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park.
“Feels good,” said Rogers, who has been diligently trying to adjust to a backup role behind Dillon Dingler. “I have a new-found appreciation for that backup catcher role. Because it’s hard. You kind of can’t get in that rhythm and you have to get used to it. And I have been.”
There was a lot of action and plot lines packed into this game. Most significantly, it was the Tigers’ fifth straight win, their ninth in the last 10 and it extended their lead in the American League Central to 11.5 games.
And Rogers had a front-row seat for most of it. Especially for the mini-drama that played out with starting pitcher Chris Paddack, who got his first real indoctrination into the machinations of manager AJ Hinch.
“He’s a genius at what he does, man,” said Paddack, though he might not have been thinking exactly that when Hinch shook his hand after five innings.
Paddack, holding a 2-1 lead, pitched well and efficiently, limiting the pesky Royals to a run and five hits. He had thrown just 62 pitches and he fully expected to be back on the mound for the sixth.
“Look, every one of those guys are competitive,” Rogers said. “They want to stay out there and work into the ninth if they can. But we know we’ve got a lot of ponies in the pen ready to go. He was upset today, probably, that he got pulled out. He wants to be out there and compete.
“I don’t think he was mad at AJ. He just wants to compete and you can’t blame him for that.”
Paddack was about to go through the Royals’ lineup a third time. It’s a one-run game and Hinch had the pocket of hitters he was looking for to use rookie right-hander Troy Melton and lefty Tyler Holton and get the game to Will Vest.
“I just have so much trust in (Vest),” Hinch said. “The one thing we needed to avoid tonight was using both Vest and (Kyle) Finnegan. Which means a couple of things had to happen. That’s why we went aggressively to Melton. I knew when I wanted Holton to come in and the guys did their job and got their outs.”
Melton, brought in to face a string of right-handed hitters in the middle of the lineup, gave up a solo homer to Bobby Witt, Jr., who had three hits, and he left two on and one out for Holton in the seventh. Holton got a one-pitch double-play ball from lefty-swinging Kyle Isbel to end the seventh and he got two outs in the eighth before Vest came in and slammed the door for a four-out save, his 19th.
It gave Paddack a clear picture of how Hinch maneuvers the pitching staff.
“One of the first conversations I had when I got traded over here was about how important communication is to him,” Paddack said. “We’re always going to have our opinions about when we should be taken out of the game and when we shouldn’t. That’s just being a competitor.”
When Hinch shook his hand after the fifth, Paddack went into the tunnel and took a couple of deep breaths.
“He took me out, we have a lead right now and we have a great bullpen,” Paddack said. “They showed that tonight. Like I said, we’re always going to have our opinions. We want to go out there and throw 200 pitches. But the reality is, we have bigger goals here as a team and that’s to get to October. I took a couple of deep breaths and patted him on the shoulder.
“I respect his decision and it paid off.”
Hinch was talking to Paddack at his locker just as the media was allowed into the clubhouse. The message seemed to resonate.
“Hate him or love him, he’s great at what he does,” Rogers said of Hinch, with whom he’s enjoyed five years of non-stop, good-natured banter. “He’s really good at knowing the next move and I think that’s what makes him such a great manager. It feels weird tooting his horn (wry smile), but no, it was cool to see.
“It all falls into place. It worked out perfectly.”
So did Rogers’ two knocks.
He lined a double into the left-field corner in the third inning, scoring Javier Báez from first base. In the fifth, his single to left-center brought speedy Zach McKinstry all the way home from first base.
“That guy runs like his pants are on fire,” Rogers said.
Third-base coach Joey Cora boldly sent McKinstry home even though the throw from Isbel in center was already on its way to shortstop Witt. Witt’s throw was off line and McKinstry scored standing up.
Spencer Torkelson hit his 27th home run of the season, a screaming, 408-foot liner into the visitor’s bullpen in the fourth.
All that damage was against Royals starter Michael Wacha, who hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his last seven starts. But the Tigers made Wacha labor. He finished his night at 108 pitches, barely getting through the sixth inning.
His final batter was Dingler and they embarked on an epic 15-pitch fight. Wacha threw every pitch in his tool kit and Dingler kept fouling them off. He sent the 14th pitch down the left-field line just outside the foul pole.
Pitch No. 15 was called strike three by home plate umpire Adam Beck, though the Statcast K-zone showed it well outside the zone.
“I’m going to say it was borderline to not get fined,” Hinch said. “But I know everybody was in on that at-bat. What an incredible battle. To Wacha, too, who is tiring at the end and Dillon is fouling balls off. There was the near homer. It ultimately didn’t go our way, which is frustrating, but it doesn’t mean that wasn’t a great at-bat.”
The Tigers tacked on a vital insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, Hinch again pushing the right button. Andy Ibanez, pinch-hitting for Colt Keith against lefty reliever Sam Long, went down and launched a 1-2 curveball over the fence in left field.
“I love it for the player because they have done so much to prepare for those at-bats all day,” Hinch said. “Andy is sitting on the bench all day and he’s looking at video, he’s taking swings in the cage, everything to prepare for the one opportunity that may or may not come.
“That’s such a huge reward for those guys.”
@cmccosky
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