On a night it's revealed Taylor Rogers had a knee injection, Josh Hader blows a save with Padres

There is yet another twist to the Josh Hader trade.

Reliever Taylor Rogers, acquired from the San Diego Padres last week along with a pair of minor-leaguers in exchange for the all-star closer, had a cortisone injection in his left knee that left him unable to pitch in the Milwaukee Brewers' 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night at American Family Field.

Manager Craig Counsell divulged after the game that he'd chosen Matt Bush to close because Devin Williams had endured a heavy workload by pitching in four of the previous five games.

"We wanted to give him another day to fully recover," he said.

Then he added that Rogers, who'd saved 28 games with the Padres and also would have made perfect sense to use in the ninth, was still recovering from the shot he'd received Sunday.

"We just wanted to give him another day," Counsell said. "He's trending in a good direction. Felt pretty good today, but not quite there yet."

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A few minutes later, Rogers told reporters he'd hoped to keep the injection – and the reason for it – under wraps.

"I was trying to keep it more on the down low, just because I didn't want it to be like something you can blame your struggles on," said Rogers, who is 1-5 with a 4.36 earned run average and WHIP of 1.13 in 44 appearances this season.

His ERA ballooned from 2.70 to 4.35 at the time of the trade, and he'd lost his closer's role with San Diego.

"It's been kind of bugging me for a while," Rogers continued. "The treatment wasn't taking anymore, so we're going to try this step and see if it helps. We're talking a couple months. Like I said, I didn't want it to be public because I didn't want it to be like an excuse for struggles.

"Everybody goes through things in a season. So, now that it's out, that's what we've got."

Rogers termed it "more like tendinitis. I don't know the doctor terms."

Rogers added he thought he could have pitched Tuesday but that Wednesday was more likely if he's needed.

Bush dominated the Rays in a 1-2-3 ninth, earning his second save of the season and since 2017.

Hader allows three runs against San Francisco Giants in the ninth

Of course, the outcry over the Hader trade has been tremendously negative since it was announced Aug. 2.

So it was interesting that on the same night Rogers' knee injection came to light, Hader blew his first save opportunity for the Padres.

Pitching the ninth with San Diego leading the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park, 4-1, Hader allowed three runs on a hit, three walks and a hit batter.

He threw 37 pitches (most in two seasons) a day after throwing 21 in a shutout loss – the type of usage Counsell & Co. had avoided piling onto the left-hander when he was with Milwaukee – but the Padres eventually came back to win on a Manny Machado walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Hader's ERA now sits at 4.66 and his WHIP at 1.17. His ERA since July 1 is 12.00 and his WHIP is 2.17.

He's pitched three times for the Padres, and won in his debut with his new club to improve to 2-4.

It will be interesting to watch and see how the Brewers' bullpen and Hader both pan out the rest of the way, especially since both Milwaukee and San Diego are battling for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Josh Hader blows save, Taylor Rogers gets cortisone shot in left knee