MRI on forearm interrupts Rogers' impressive trend

MIAMI -- The Marlins missed out on several chances to sweep the Giants in Wednesday afternoon’s 5-2 defeat in 11 innings at loanDepot park. The greatest loss could have been Trevor Rogers exiting early with left forearm tightness.

Rogers, who will undergo an MRI to determine the severity, said he first felt the discomfort during his in-between-starts bullpen session and received treatment on it. The 25-year-old southpaw was better until beginning his pregame routine for the series finale.

“It feels fine right now,” Rogers said. “As I progressed more into the game, [it] was a lot of forearm/bicep tightness. No pain, but as I kept getting deeper into the game, velo was staying around 91 [mph]. Just really didn't have anything as far as extension-wise. [I] could've kept pitching, but at the point we are in the season, I just don't think it'd be a smart idea to try and test it.”

After Rogers allowed back-to-back hits in the fourth, the second of which was an RBI double by Darin Ruf, the club gathered for a mound visit and Rogers departed without throwing a warmup pitch.

“That inning we looked at his warmup pitches and just didn't look right,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “[Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.] felt he was disconnected in his mechanics, and he came back and was like, ‘Hey, heads-up. [He] doesn't look right. Something looks off.’ And a couple of pitches later [Jacob] Stallings went out there. Here we are.”

There’s no good time for an injury, but now is especially unfortunate timing for Rogers, who had been trending up. In his last outing on Friday, he limited the D-backs to one run over six innings with seven strikeouts. Entering Wednesday, Rogers’ 38.7 percent chase rate ranked fourth best in the Majors (minimum of 200 pitches thrown) -- 10 points better than his 2022 mark (28.6%).

After finishing as the 2021 National League Rookie of the Year Award runner-up (2.64 ERA), Rogers posted a 5.47 ERA in ‘22. Amidst his struggles, he missed a month with back spasms and sustained a season-ending left lat strain in September.

“It's always frustrating when I can't go out there and compete and stay healthy, those bumps along the way,” Rogers said. “Just got to go roll with the punches. Look at it [as it] could have been a lot worse. Really just start trying to figure it out and move on, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

Beginning Friday, the Marlins will begin a stretch of 10 games without an off-day. Miami’s rotation already is without veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto (right biceps tightness); southpaw Braxton Garrett is starting in his place. Options are limited with lefty Daniel Castano being placed on the seven-day injured list at Triple-A Jacksonville on Monday. Swingman Devin Smeltzer took the loss on Wednesday after surrendering a pair of two-run homers in the 11th.

The Marlins might need to explore non-roster options like righties Chi Chi González, Jeff Lindgren or Bryan Hoeing. A corresponding 40-man move would need to be made.

Until Smeltzer, five relievers kept the Giants off the scoreboard for seven innings. They struck out seven batters and permitted just four baserunners. Over its past seven games entering Wednesday, Miami’s bullpen had given up two runs in 25 innings (0.72 ERA).

High-leverage arms Dylan Floro and A.J. Puk were unavailable after pitching in the first two games of the series. Smeltzer was the last guy left in the bullpen when the Marlins couldn’t walk it off in the ninth or 10th. Is there a chance -- hypothetically speaking in say, August -- that Schumaker would send one of those guys out for a third straight day?

“That's way down the line,” Schumaker said. “I couldn't do that the first month of the season. I don't love doing back-to-backs in general this early, but that's where we're at with these tight games. And I've said it before, when there's games to be won, you go for it. In a tie game, [it] didn't really make too much sense to try to go there anyways. I had them down today.

“[Huascar Brazoban] and [Tanner] Scott did great again. [Matt Barnes] did great. [George] Soriano did great. There's guys that we've been putting in spots that have never been in those situations before, and they keep stepping up against really good Major League hitters. When you continue to do that, you feel like you have a chance to break through, and it just didn't happen today.”