Trevor Rogers exits early with injury as Marlins fail to sweep Giants, lose in extras

In the midst of one of its best stretches in recent memory, the Marlins needed their relievers even more following Trevor Rogers early exit on Wednesday afternoon.

The bullpen held for seven frames until a familiar nemesis, Michael Conforto, broke the dam in the top of the 11th inning with a two-run pinch-hit home run that dealt the Marlins a 5-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants at loanDepot park.

The Marlins (10-9) were denied what would have been their first series sweep of the season.

Conforto’s 407-foot blast to right center field off a curveball from lefty Devin Smeltzer broke a 1-1 tie and was followed three batters later by another two-run homer by Mike Yastrzemski.

Conforto’s homer was his 20th all-time against the Marlins and snapped a stretch of 20⅔ consecutive scoreless innings by the Marlins’ bullpen.

Jon Berti doubled to lead off the bottom of the 11th to score Avisail Garcia, and the Marlins loaded the bases with two outs. But Taylor Rogers induced a game-ending ground out to first from Luis Arraez.

But a bigger concern than the defeat turned to their rotation, which took another potential injury hit.

Rogers lasted only three innings and exited the game with left forearm tightness in the fourth after giving up an RBI double to Darin Ruf.

“As I progressed more into the game it was forearm/bicep tightness, no pain, but as I was getting deeper into the game, the velo was staying around 91 (mph),” Rogers said. “I didn’t have anything extension-wise, but at the point we’re at this season, it didn’t feel right to keep testing it.”

Rogers said he felt some discomfort during his pregame bullpen, which got progressively worse as he began to pitch. He said he would undergo an MRI late Wednesday night.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker didn’t elaborate on possible call-ups should Rogers have to go on the injured list. Daniel Castano wouldn’t likely be one of them as he also just went on the minor-league IL.

Schumaker acknowledged that Rogers’ drop in velo was a clear warning sign.

“That inning we looked at his warmup pitches and it just didn’t look right,” Schumaker said. “He was disconnected in his mechanics and (Stottlemyre) said something didn’t look right and a couple of pitches later, Stallings went out and there we were.”

Rogers was coming off a solid start against the Diamondbacks last Friday in which he gave up one run on five hits and struck out seven over six innings.

Rogers retired seven consecutive batters after allowing a hit and a walk in the first inning. He struck out three and walked one, allowing one run on three hits.

The Marlins already lost starter Johnny Cueto to injury earlier this month.

“I just have to roll with the punches and try to figure it out and move on, hopefully sooner than later,” Rogers said.

Ruf’s extra base hit put the Giants ahead 1-0 following Wilmer Flores’ bloop single to lead off the fourth.

Despite allowing a single to J.D. Davis and issuing a walk to Joey Bart which loaded the bases, George Soriano limited the damage by inducing a fielder’s choice ground ball from Heliot Ramos to end the inning.

Soriano, Matt Barnes, Andrew Nardi, Huascar Brazoban and Tanner Scott combined to throw seven scoreless innings. Prior to the four allowed on Wednesday, Marlins relievers had only allowed two runs in 31 innings since April 11.

Even with the automatic runner on second to start the 10th, Scott pitched a scoreless frame, striking out Lamonte Wade Jr. and Thairo Estrada.

Miami tied the game in the bottom of the fifth when Garrett Cooper singled to drive in Garrett Hampson.

The Marlins weren’t able to get the winning run across in the 10th inning after Chisholm Jr. and Arraez pulled a double steal to put runners on second and third with one out. But Bryan De La Cruz and Avisail Garcia proceeded to strike out in succession against Giants reliever Camilo Doval.

The Marlins left 15 runners on base overall.

“We had our chances and the right guys up at the right time. I felt good about the double steal there, knowing they would probably walk Soler and DLC has come through time and time again for us and been one of our better hitters,” Schumaker said. “(Doval) is really good and he’s throwing 100 mph cutters there so that’s not an easy at-bat for anybody...That was our best chance, we thought, to score.”