Rodgers, 'feeling good,' homers after April slump

DENVER -- In the top of the second inning of the Rockies’ 9-7 win over the Nationals at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon, Washington left fielder Dee Strange-Gordon singled to right field and advanced to second base on an error. When he got there, he got to catch up (ever so briefly) with a friend.

Colorado second baseman Brendan Rodgers came up to Strange-Gordon with a big smile across his face.

“He told me, when he came to see me up there on second base,” Strange-Gordon said, “he said, ‘Man, I’m so happy to see you.’ And the feeling is mutual.”

Rodgers’ coach on his youth travel ball team way back when he was 12 years old was none other than Strange-Gordon’s father, Tom “Flash” Gordon, who had a 21-year Major League career as a pitcher for eight clubs, most notably the Royals and Red Sox. Gordon made an indelible impression on a young Rodgers, one that remains with him to this day.

“One of the first things he ever told me was, ‘Play every game like it’s your last. You never know who’s watching you play,’” Rodgers said. “I’ve taken that to heart.”

Although he didn’t know it yet, Rodgers would deliver the biggest hit in Thursday’s victory for the Rockies, a three-run homer in the fifth inning that turned a 5-3 game into an 8-3 game. His 2-for-4 performance continued a surge that began on Sunday, after he hit just .078 with one extra-base hit through April. In four May games, he’s 6-for-16 (.375) with two doubles, plus Thursday’s homer (his first of the season).

Adversity for Rodgers is nothing new. The third overall selection in the 2015 Draft out of Lake Mary High School (Fla.), Rodgers rose to the status of Colorado’s No. 1 prospect. But injuries, most notably a right labrum tear that required shoulder surgery in 2019, delayed his ascent to the Majors.

Rodgers made his big league debut in 2019, prior to the season-ending shoulder surgery, but due to more injury issues he entered the ’21 campaign having played only 32 Major League games. With the opportunity to show what he could do at the big league level in a larger sample size, Rodgers posted a .798 OPS (104 OPS+) with 15 homers in 415 plate appearances last year.

Then came his dreadful April 2022 and a slump that could have spiraled out of control, had it continued into May. But Rodgers has dealt with this sort of thing before. Besides, whether he went 4-for-4 or 0-for-4 on any given day, he had to play every game like it was his last -- just as “Flash” told him all those years ago.

“The adversity I went through before is similar to a slump, in a way,” Rodgers said. “You’re pretty much useless when you’re on the bench, whether you’re not healthy or you’re not contributing.”

But Rodgers stayed the course, and now he’s avoiding something that he was doing a lot of in April, something he said, “Kills me inside.”

“Grounding to short,” Rodgers said. “If I get beat inside with a pitch, I should still be able to keep my hands in and shoot it up the middle or the other way.”

Case in point: In his first plate appearance Thursday, Rodgers got a two-seam fastball that tailed inside from Nationals starter Aaron Sanchez. In April, Rodgers may very well have been “dying inside” as he ran toward first base on a grounder to shortstop. Instead it was an RBI double to right-center field.

“I don’t want to say it,” Rodgers said of what’s to come now that he’s locked in. “But I do feel good. I do feel like I’m figuring some stuff out. I’m staying in my legs, using the whole field.”

Perhaps manager Bud Black put it best after seeing his young second baseman continue to break out of his early-season doldrums.

“When he gets going -- heads up,” Black said. “Because he can hit.”

It’s what happened last year, when a cold start turned into a solid overall season. Will it happen again in ’22?

Strange-Gordon hopes not, at least when it comes to games against his Nationals.

“B-Rod, we gave you all your hits for the year,” he said in a message to his longtime friend.

Then he turned serious and corrected his course.

“No, B-Rod’s swinging the bat well. I’m happy to see it.”

So are the Rockies.