Jake Rogers’ reaction to strikeout goes viral

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Catchers generally deal with umpires in a level of diplomacy that’s different from other hitters. They spend half of the game directly in front of the plate umpire, trying to work the strike zone for their pitcher’s favor.

Argue a close pitch too heatedly while batting, and there’s the risk of lingering emotions when back behind the plate. So, catchers tend to not be hot-headed, reacting in different ways without trying to show anyone up.

“I’m aware that I make weird faces during the game,” Rogers said. “It’s a game. I like to have fun a little bit. It’s just kind of my way of keeping my mind free and enjoying the game. I think my facial expressions are exactly what my mind’s telling myself.”

Those reactions have become a low-key source of entertainment for teammates.

“Any time Rog makes a face, it looks ridiculous because of the mustache,” reliever Jason Foley said. “He has some funny ones.”

Usually, those faces come and go with relatively little notice. But thanks to television and social media, Rogers’ reaction to a called third strike from Braves starter Max Fried on Monday went viral — not for where the pitch was or anything he said, but how he contorted his face.

Both the Tigers and Braves broadcasts caught the reaction, a mix of shock and discomfort like someone tasting something unexpectedly sour.

“That’s going to be a meme,” Tigers broadcaster Jason Benetti predicted on the Bally Sports Detroit broadcast. “Internet, use away.”

Braves broadcasters C.J. Nitkowski — a former Tigers pitcher — and Brandon Gaudin went further.

“That is what the face of Bald Bull would look like when you punched him in the stomach in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out,” said Gaudin, referring to the 1980s video game for Nintendo.

By the end of the evening, it was a highlight. Still, Rogers didn’t realize his reaction had gone viral — or even what it looked like on TV — until Foley told him about it on the bus to Truist Park the next day.

“‘Yeah, you’re a meme,’” Rogers said Foley told him. “I had no idea. And then I got showed the picture of my face.”

Rogers didn’t play the next day but was back in the lineup for Wednesday’s series finale. Truist Park organist Matthew Kaminski, who has become well-known for his creativity in picking walk-up songs for visiting players, changed his song choice for Rogers. Instead of the Mister Rogers Neighborhood theme he used Monday, he greeted Rogers his first time up with the theme song from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.

“Yeah, they got me,” Rogers said.

Rogers had a reaction that didn’t go viral in his second at-bat Monday.

“I got jammed with a cutter against Max Fried,” Rogers said. “It was a brand-new bat and you could see the blue mark right by the label. And I kind of looked at [Braves catcher Sean] Murphy and I said, ‘Is that where you want to hit the ball?’ He laughed.”