Giants reliever Rogers’ ‘stupid’ rising slider goes viral originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Giants reliever Tyler Rogers‘ rising slider has left even the famed “Pitching Ninja” Rob Friedman dumbfounded.
Rogers entered the sixth inning of the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader between the Giants and Washington Nationals and got the team’s two young stars — Trea Turner and Juan Soto — out before unleashing this ridiculous pitch to strike out Ryan Zimmerman and end the inning.
As one Twitter user pointed out in the replies, the place where the ball starts to where it ends up in the strike zone is flabbergasting.
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Saturday night wasn’t the first time this season that Rogers’ slider has gotten the attention of Friedman.
Primarily relying on two pitches, Rogers’ slider has been dominant in 2021. Opposing batters have hit just .116 against it, while his four-seam fastball yields a batting average of .294.
Ranking in the 90th or better percentile in most of the core advanced pitching metrics, Rogers has been vital to the Giants’ bullpen.
With a pitch like that, expect to see plenty more bats being tossed in frustration like Zimmerman does above.