SAN DIEGO — Hey, bro, you wanna have a catch?
OK, so those weren’t the exact words. But it was Hollywood sentiment at its peak Sunday when identical twin brothers Taylor Rogers and Tyler Rogers turned an otherwise mundane pregame routine into a cherished family memory.
Taylor is the Padres’ closer, Tyler’s a Giants reliever. With their teams playing a four-game series at Petco Park, they had time over the weekend to spend some time off the field. The conversation turned to the fact that they’ve been playing catch together all their lives but hadn’t done so on a big league diamond. Now they have.
“Something as simple as having a game of catch on a big league field, it was really a dream come true,” Tyler said.
Said Taylor: “We always discussed playing on a Major League field, going back to when we were in the backyard playing catch. So we decided to do it.”
With neither team taking pregame batting practice on the field Sunday, the brothers had the chance to play catch in the outfield. Taylor stood in center field, wearing a Padres brown warmup jersey. Tyler, in Giants orange, took a spot closer to left field. And they had a catch.
The brothers went through their full warmup session with each other. Taylor went to Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla for clearance to do that. The response?
“He said I didn’t have to ask,” Taylor said.
The family get-togethers have been more common since Taylor was traded from Minnesota to San Diego on Opening Day, with the Giants and Padres facing each other 19 times.
Neither brother pitched in the Giants’ 12-0 victory in the series finale. The 31-year-olds have appeared in the same game once. In the Padres’ 4-2 victory on April 11 in San Francisco, Taylor earned a save with a scoreless ninth inning. Tyler took the loss after giving up the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.
The clubs have nine games left against each other in 2022. Might the brotherly catch become a regular thing?
“No, I don’t think so,” Tyler said.
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