Last piece of Verlander trade helps Tigers pounce on Astros early

HOUSTON -- Jake Rogers went the first five months of the season without swinging at a 3-0 pitch before doing it in back-to-back games against A’s relievers in Oakland in early September. He fouled off a pitch from T.J. McFarland in the seventh inning on Sept. 7 before drawing a walk, then flew out to center on a 3-0 pitch in the sixth frame the next day.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to do that ever again,’” Rogers recalled.

He couldn’t have imagined at the time that he would have a 3-0 count with an RBI opportunity in Game 1 of an American League Wild Card Series. Or that he would have it against his old Astros Minor League teammate Framber Valdez.

Rogers caught Valdez for two starts at Class A Quad Cities in 2016, then a handful of starts at Class A Advanced Buies Creek the following season. The Astros traded Rogers to the Tigers that August as part of a prospect package for Justin Verlander, and Rogers had faced Valdez nearly a dozen times since then. He knows the stuff from the batter’s box and from behind the plate.

“Framber was always up there as a guy that just had great stuff,” Rogers said before Tuesday’s series-opening 3-1 win. “And he was always really hard to catch. If it's hard to catch, it's hard to hit.”

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So with a 3-0 count, runners at the corners and two outs in the second inning, Rogers took his shot, thinking it might be the best chance to see a hittable pitch in the strike zone.

“Against Framber and his good stuff, I knew I was probably going to get a heater somewhere over the plate,” Rogers said. “So I was trying to be a little bit aggressive there, and [I] got a hit.”

Rogers’ ground ball off an elevated 95 mph sinker bounced past a diving Jeremy Pe?a and into center field, scoring Wenceel Pérez and setting off a three-run inning. It was Detroit’s only scoring in the game, propelling the Tigers to their first postseason win since 2013.

It was also an example of how the Tigers have ignited a once-moribund offense to produce runs and pull out games.

“We just didn't try to do too much,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We say this sometimes about not trying to be the hero and just play the game and see where it takes you. You saw that with the 3-0 swing, not trying to lift and hit the ball to the train. A good, solid base hit. …

“You just saw a lot of things that signaled that the guys understood the moment and they understood that Framber is not somebody that is just going to miss middle-middle and give you something easy to hit. The ball moves, it cuts, it sinks, it curves. He threw some changeups to some of our guys, and we continued to stay disciplined. So I like that about our team, as we took a game plan and took it into the game. Executed, stayed really disciplined and put a guy on base every inning to put pressure on the other side to have to deal with that.”

The threat began with a Pérez opposite-field single and a Spencer Torkelson walk, battling out of an 0-2 count for a walk for just the fifth time this season.

Parker Meadows hit Valdez’s next pitch on the ground for what looked like a potential inning-ending double play, but Meadows sped down the line -- reaching an elite sprint speed of 30.3 feet per second -- to beat the throw to first and extend the inning for Rogers.

Rogers singled home Pérez, then rookie Trey Sweeney lined another elevated sinker back up the middle for a single. While Meadows easily beat Jake Meyers’ throw home, Rogers never stopped around second base.

It was the latest aggressive first-to-third turn for a team that led the league in them over the final seven weeks of the season. And it had the Tigers’ dugout screaming almost as much as Meadows’ run.

“I was going to go hopefully just to draw a throw and score a run out of it,” Rogers said, “but he ended up throwing home and Parker got in safe and I got in safe. It was kind of the perfect situation.”

That made Matt Vierling’s job easier, scoring Rogers on a liner to center field.

“We've been preaching it and done a really good job at it the last few months going first to third and being aggressive,” Rogers said. “You see a catcher going first to third and making it, any other guys can do it.”