NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 9, 2021

Tyler Rogers

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. You guys got used so much down the stretch in the bullpen particularly in September with the stretch where you guys had two starters down. Getting a little bit of a break here, how much of a difference are you guys feeling physically, personally, and then maybe what you're hearing from other guys?

TYLER ROGERS: No, the rest and recuperation was definitely, I don't want to say needed, but we'll take it. But at the same time, you want to stay in mid-season form, so a lot of us didn't take too much time off in the four or five days in between.

Q. I wondered if you could address what the vibe was last night when you came in and what it's like in the stadium. And I don't know when you came in this morning, but there's so many people out walking around. There's obviously a vibe around the town right now. Can you pick up on that or are you in your own little cocoon, so to speak?

TYLER ROGERS: No, you try and stay in your own little cocoon or your own little world and stay within your daily routine and everything, but you can definitely feel like a buzz around town. Everyone's getting to the ballpark early because I think we just can't sit in our homes, like, just until late afternoon to get here. We're ready to get to the field. I know I can't sit still.

So it was definitely fun. Yesterday for batting practice there was a bunch of people around and Blue Angels are flying over the field and it just felt, it was pretty cool. I made sure to take that in.

Q. I saw your brother here last night. I was wondering, did he tell you anything about his playoff experience to potentially help you? And also, what was it like for him being in the stands? I imagine he might have thrown some people off by sitting around.

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah, he gave me, we talked about the playoffs a little bit. He did tell me about, which was a good tip, he told me about the commercial breaks being longer, and he said, so if like if you're warming up in between innings, like really take your time because you can be ready and there will still be a minute and a half left until the commercial break's over. So that was a good tidbit from him.

But he, it was very cool to have him here. He's very excited to come. A lot of people mistook him for me, and even like during the game, they were asking him why he's in the stands (laughing).

No, he got very excited when I came in and he was very excited all day, yeah.

Q. When you were developing your style of pitching, how much did you actively try to emphasize getting left-handers out because that's not something that people associate with that style.

TYLER ROGERS: It wasn't -- I actually was probably more focused on getting right-handers out, knowing that would probably be my role, if I ever was to get to the big leagues, would be like a right-handed like specialist-type guy. That was more the focus.

Q. What is your technique for getting left-handers out, knowing that that's not usually what they associate with your style?

TYLER ROGERS: I don't want to give away my secrets (smiling.)

No, you just got to be able to throw at least two pitches for a strike. You got to be able to pitch, up, down, in, out. I don't think there's a secret recipe. And I know submarine, side-arm guys get that label about getting opposite-handed hitters out, even before they get a chance to sometimes.

That was, actually, that was the first question I was asked before I made my debut is: How do you think you're going to get left-handers out? And I was like I haven't even faced one yet.

Q. As you're sitting there in the bullpen and the game's going on and the crowd's getting crazy on every 0-2 count, does that feel surreal to you since this is the first time you've experienced that or what's the atmosphere like in the bullpen there?

TYLER ROGERS: It's hard to sit still down there, for sure. Even the way Logan was pitching, a lot of us in the bullpen were like, send him back out, send him back out, you know?

But it's definitely hard to sit still and you feel kind of far away from the game. But for me, I like becoming a fan in those situations, and I like to get riled up and cheer him on from the bullpen.

Q. You guys obviously have a couple of really talented fielders behind you, but I think your defensive positioning is also among the best in the league. How much of an advantage is that for a pitching staff especially considering you guys induce a ton of ground balls?

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah. No, it's a big advantage and it's a big confidence boost for us pitchers and, yeah, I think it shows too, like as a bullpen, I think we have like a high ground ball percentage and a high strike percentage and I think knowing that our defense is going to be in the right position definitely helps us do that.

Q. Going back to pre-game, you were talking about the atmosphere and the buzz. Steve Young, Jerry Rice that beat L.A. Barry Bonds. What did you think of Steve and Jerry and kind of all the celebrities that were here last night and did it fire you up at all?

TYLER ROGERS: Absolutely it fired me up. That was really cool to see some Bay Area people that still stick around, love coming to the Giants games. And it's cool to see all the different sports teams in the Bay Area kind of unite together.

Q. You guys had the series at L.A. in July that you had the blown save the one night and then Kapler went back to you immediately the next night. How important was that series for you in terms of confidence and in terms of your relationship with Gabe and knowing that he has trust in you?

TYLER ROGERS: Well, it was big-time, big trust for, that Gabe showed me. If you kind of see that, with any of us bullpen guys, he'll do that for a lot of us and that's huge and it's, luckily it worked out that time, but it was good.

That series that you're speaking about, that was good experience for what we're going to see on Monday.

Q. With your style of pitching, obviously there's the whole thing about left-handers, but also you're kind of known for not necessarily having the highest velo. Do you get grief from the other guys in the bullpen or other guys in the pitching staff for your velo?

TYLER ROGERS: No, I don't. I probably make fun of myself more about it. But I like messing with people. Like, the videos that they play for like Jake McGee and Doval, like they show like fire behind the ball or whatever, and I was like, You can't put fire behind 82? What? (Laughing).

Q. Getting back to your pitching again, it's a two-part question. I'm sure you answered this a long time ago, but how did you come about developing your delivery style; and then secondly, do you remember some of the older sidearm guys like Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry and Chad Bradford?

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah, I tried looking at like videos of those older guys. There's not a lot out there on them, unfortunately.

Your first question about how I became to do it, that's along answer, but it was just a lot of trial and error, to be honest with you, and it's something that I was a hundred percent committed to doing. I wanted to try to throw sidearm at the time, and the submarine delivery honestly just kind of found me.

Q. Did you have a coach that decided to change your delivery from sidearm to submarine, and did you also choose that delivery because of the rarity, that it would give you an advantage on when you're pitching?

TYLER ROGERS: It wasn't -- my junior college coach at Garden City, Chris Finnegan, he's the one that dropped me down. There was no one that switched me from sidearm to submarine. That just kind of happened. Honestly, I just kept getting lower and lower as I kept pitching and learning things.

And what was the second part to your question? I'm sorry.

Q. Oh does it give you an advantage obviously pitching if you decided to choose that style of pitching because it would get you to the majors or in a position where you could pitch like that?

TYLER ROGERS: No, when I did make the switch, there really wasn't any intent to make it to the Majors. It was honestly to make my college baseball team, and then just kind of took off from there.

Q. I imagine from talking to your brother you may have a sense of what goes into a team getting on a run for a few years and being good and staying on that roll. What do you see here that would tell fans this is a team that's going to be good for the next few years as opposed to this is a team having one really good year?

TYLER ROGERS: I think probably the, like the special aspect that we have here in this clubhouse is guys feel comfortable being themselves and that's big. And you can see, when guys first get called up from Sacramento, it seems you can see like the comfort level that they have out on the field and that starts in the clubhouse. And there's no more of that like old school like rookie hazing, anything like that.

It's like whatever you need to do to perform on that field, be yourself and do your thing, and your teammates are behind you.

Q. You mentioned those games in Los Angeles. Obviously a big part of one of them was Mike Tauchman's catch in that one game. Have you looked back on that moment just as how important it might have been to the season, just getting momentum at the time, but also just the fact you finished one game ahead of the Dodgers?

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah, that's a good point. I have not looked back on it, but you make a good point. And that kind of speaks to the season we're having where everybody who has put on a Giants uniform has done something substantial to help us win games.

Q. You mentioned Doval. What do you think of what you guys have seen from him this month and what you guys have gotten from him and Castro?

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah, those two, I can't, I'm still impressed every day by them, just about how they go about their business, how they don't seem to have a heart rate, and I guess if I had their stuff I would be a little more calmer as well.

But, no, it's quite impressive and those two have a lot of good baseball in their careers ahead of them.

Q. Last question about your style. Trust me. I notice when you're warming up, a lot of guys, either your catch partners or guys around you, try to throw from down there.

TYLER ROGERS: Yeah.

Q. Is anybody actually good at it? Is there anyone on the team that's good at it? And who is the most hilariously awful that you've seen?

TYLER ROGERS: Brandon Crawford's really good at it. I'm sure that's not surprising. And then Austin Slater tries to. He's probably the worst at it. (Laughing).