Rogers becomes 3rd starting pitcher to bat since '21 in wild O's win

ARLINGTON -- If ever a manager needed a crystal ball, or perhaps even some superpowered artificial intelligence that doesn’t quite exist yet, to help him find a way to navigate a game, it was Monday night. Orioles interim skipper Tony Mansolino had to make some unconventional decisions to help his team get to the end of an 11-inning, 10-6 victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

By the time he used the last healthy man on the Orioles’ bench, Luis Vázquez, as a pinch-hitter in the 11th, Mansolino had given up the designated hitter and let his starting pitcher, Trevor Rogers, bat twice. Those decisions, uncommon as they were, were vindicated when the Orioles managed to score seven extra-inning runs to secure a victory.

Gunnar Henderson hit a two-run homer in the 10th and a two-run double in the 11th -- after Vázquez drove in the game-winning run with his pinch-hit single -- but all of those late heroics only added to the pre-established strangeness of the Orioles’ victory.

“That was kind of a classic ... we’re going to be talking about this game [for] the next 10 years,” Mansolino said.

In the bottom of the third, the tough decisions began to mount for Mansolino when starting catcher Chadwick Tromp had to leave the game with a lower back strain. He is likely to go on the injured list Tuesday, Mansolino said.

With no one else on the roster with any Major League catching experience other than designated hitter Gary Sánchez, Mansolino had to give up the DH -- and the No. 9 spot in the order, now occupied by Rogers, was up next for the Orioles.

“That’s the risk you take when you DH the second catcher -- there’s a lot of teams across the league that do it constantly, and you know if you get in that scenario, that could happen,” Mansolino said.

Fortunately for the Orioles, Rogers was pitching well enough at that point that pinch-hitting for him wasn’t a necessity. So he became the third MLB starting pitcher (not including Shohei Ohtani) to bat since the National League adopted the designated hitter in 2022, joining Reiver Sanmartin (April 19, 2022) and Luis Castillo (June 30, 2024).

“We had no choice,” Mansolino said. “He’s throwing the ball good. He’s got to stay in the game.”

Rogers had cruised through three scoreless innings after tossing a career-high eight innings without allowing a run in his previous start. He presided over a 3-0 lead both times he dug into the batter’s box, and Mansolino didn’t want Rogers to hurt himself trying to widen the lead. So he struck out twice on six pitches, swinging only at the second.

“I don't know if it was the best-looking swing,” Rogers said. “It might have messed my golf swing up, but I had to get one.”

The last thing Mansolino needed was for his pitcher to hurt himself swinging the bat, so he told Rogers not to.

“[If] he takes a swing and pulls an oblique, my goodness ... [we’re] just fortunate that we got through it, fortunate that we won the game, fortunate that it worked out the way it did,” Mansolino said.

After his second at-bat, Rogers gave up a two-run homer to Marcus Semien in the next half inning. The Rangers tied the game in the seventh, but the Orioles, led by Henderson’s two-run homer and Colton Cowser’s solo shot, carried a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the 10th. Adolis García’s three-run homer tied it up, but Baltimore broke through again in the 11th for four more runs.

At that point, Mansolino could stop theorizing about how to get through the game, as he had been doing almost all night. Fans of the old National League way of managing had to have enjoyed watching Mansolino’s moves as he used three pinch-hitters and five relievers to piece together the win.

“For me, it’s just trying to figure out the solutions to all the problems that are going to come that we don’t know are there yet,” Mansolino said. “You’re sitting there just praying that we don’t lose Gary, and what that’s going to look like if we do? You’re trying to figure out where the double switch is going to land, if we’re going to do it, if we’re going to need it. You’re trying to figure out where everything is going to land ... figure out and problem solve.”