Miguel Rojas has excelled since being tasked with filling in at shortstop for the injured Mookie Betts, and that included finishing with a game-high four RBI to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a comeback win against the San Francisco Giants on Saturday.
Rojas provided the Dodgers with early offense but they found themselves trailing as Tyler Glasnow labored through just three innings in his shortest start of the season. That sent the Dodgers down a path of needing to use all eight relief pitchers on their active roster.
That became all the more problematic as the game went into extra innings. Following their win, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he nearly turned to Miguel Rojas after the team scored seven runs to take a 14-7 lead in the 11th inning, per Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times:
“We needed every bit of that,” Roberts said of the seven-run outburst. “We were down to our last arm, and I was thinking about having Miggy Ro pitch that last inning. That’s kind of where we were at. Exhausting all of our arms feels a lot better when you win.”
Rojas revealed he lobbied Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior to let him take the mound and has wanted to do so at other points this season:
“I was telling Mark [Prior, Dodgers pitching coach] to give me the ball,” Rojas said. “I’ve been waiting to pitch this year, to be honest with you. We’ve been up by nine runs, but I think we need to be up by 10 to pitch in a game that we’re winning.”
Starting with the 2023 season, the MLB rule for a position player pitching require at least one of a game being in extra innings, your team is trailing by at least eight runs at any point, or the club is winning by 10 more more runs in the ninth inning.
Given that the Dodgers and Giants played into the 11th innings, that would’ve made Rojas eligible to pitch. Instead, the Dodgers used Daniel Hudson in the 10th and Ryan Yarbrough to finish the game out.
Has Miguel Rojas ever pitched?
The Dodgers have used Rojas as pitcher, doing so for three appearances during the 2023 season. He logged one inning in each game and allowed a combined two runs on three hits in the appearances.
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