New Albany High School alumnus Josh Rogers overcame pre-game jitters to emerge victorious in his major league debut as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays 12-5 Tuesday night at Camden Yards. 

The 24-year-old left-hander tossed five innings, giving up three runs (all earned) on seven hits and a walk while striking out two.  “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better,” Rogers told Baltimore Sun reporter Jon Meoli.  “Got some good run support early, and pitching with run support makes it a heck of a lot easier, especially in a debut like that.” 

Rogers took a 7-1 lead into the top of the fifth, when he served up a two-out, two-run homer to Justin Smoak.  Randal Grichuk’s single to left prompted a mound visit from Baltimore pitching coach Roger McDowell.  

With Rogers’ family and girlfriend in the stands, Orioles skipper Buck Showalter was reluctant to replace the youngster.  Showalter opted to let him remain on the mound, and Rogers recorded the final out on a pop-up to short.  “It was a good start for him," Showalter told reporters. “He got a win.” 

Rogers arrived in Baltimore on Monday from the Orioles’ International League affiliate in Norfolk, Va.  “I can’t even lie, I woke up sick this morning,” he told Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun after the contest.  “I was pretty nervous all day.  I got to go to lunch with my family – my grandparents, dad, mom, sister, girlfriend.  It was really good to kind of get away from it a little bit, stop thinking about it.  … But really, when I started playing catch in the outfield, everything just kind of settled in and it didn’t feel like another night, but it was just about trying to throw strikes.” 

Rogers opened this year with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (International), the top farm club of the New York Yankees.  Baltimore acquired him in a four-player deal on July 24 that sent left-handed reliever Zach Britton to the Yanks.  In 19 starts for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Rogers had six wins, eight losses and a 3.95 earned run average. He went 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in five starts at Norfolk.    

Rogers, the first left-hander to start a game for the Orioles this season, is a native of New Albany.  He played for the New Albany Little League team that won the 2007 state championship.  He developed into one of the Midwest’s top left-handed prospects while pitching for New Albany High School.  

Even though arm trouble in 2013 curtailed Rogers’ senior season, the University of Louisville offered him a scholarship.  As a sophomore in 2015 he went 8-1 for the Cardinals, and the Yankees took him in the eleventh round of that year’s MLB Draft.  He broke into professional baseball with Staten Island (short-season New York-Penn).  In 68 games over five minor league seasons, Rogers was 30-20 with a 3.07 ERA.  

Rogers is the first Indiana native to reach the majors this season and the first since Dillon Peters (Indianapolis) debuted with the Miami Marlins on September 1, 2017.  

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Rogers is the 376^th native Hoosier to reach the big leagues.  The first was outfielder Al Barker, who was born in 1839 in the Vigo County Township of Lost Creek.  A Civil War veteran, Barker appeared in a single contest in 1871 for the Forest Citys club (Rockford, Ill.) of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.     

Pete Cava is the author of “Tales From the Cubs Dugout” and “Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014.”

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