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Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Roden delivers big hit as Twins best Athletics on ‘Ryan Day’
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Roden delivers big hit as Twins best Athletics on ‘Ryan Day’
Ryan Kreidler 's third-inning play on Saturday, a double followed by a stolen base, didn't produce a run. But for the hundreds in the crowd wearing his name on shirts, flags and signs, it was reason enough to go haywire.
The group was there in honor of "Ryan Day." The Ryans had already beaten the record for the most people of the same name to consecutively ride a roller coaster at the Mall of America, and as many as a thousand then swarmed the field pregame, chanting "Let's go Ryan" as they circled the warning track.
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It was Alan Roden , however, who delivered a game-winning single in the bottom of the sixth to bring home Josh Bell and Royce Lewis . The two-run hit secured the Twins' 2-0 win over the Athletics .
Roden also had the game-winning RBI single in the ninth inning on July 8 in Cleveland , and he tied the game late with a run-scoring single against the Guardians' all-star closer Cade Smith in the Twins' 12-inning victory last Thursday.
When Roden is hitting with the bases loaded, he tries to "just stick with the approach."
"I wouldn't say there's anything different with the at-bats when there are guys on versus when they're not," Roden said. He now has seven hits and seven runs batted in in 31 at-bats this season.
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"You've got to give him credit," manager Derek Shelton said. "He's not playing every day. He's getting sporadic at-bats, and he did a nice job for us today."
Joe Ryan didn't play and is expected to return during the next homestand against the Kansas City Royals . In his last start, he gave up a franchise-record six home runs in a loss to Cleveland last Tuesday.
"He just had some general arm fatigue," Shelton said before the game. "It was just like, 'Alright, let's just move this back and get him back on track,' " the manager added. "And the fact that he pitched in the All-Star Game, sometimes that kind of snowballs."
Catcher Ryan Jeffers didn't play, either, leaving Kreidler the lone Ryan in the lineup.
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"I guess it's on me that I didn't play Jeffers," Shelton said. "I apologize to all the other Ryans out there. I don't know where Ryan Day started or how it started, so I don't know if we're doing another day. But somebody needs to tell me so I can actually play that person."
Kreidler could do no wrong in the eyes of the Ryan crowd. He received cheers even when he threw the ball between innings. He has never experienced something like that before.
"It felt like something your buddies would do for you in high school," Kreidler joked.
Kendry Rojas replaced Mike Paredes as the starting pitcher after it was announced that Paredes had suffered a left oblique strain.
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"It happened in the bullpen, and from talking to the guys down there, it looked like it got him pretty good," Shelton said. "So, Pete called down. Kendry was going to pitch second, so we just sent him down there."
Rojas allowed no runs and one hit while striking out five in four innings. It was his first major league start.
"I was not expecting it," he said through a translator. "I was just sitting, chilling, talking, and then they told me to get the start. So I sprinted my way back there, and after that it was just doing my thing and help us win."
It was Rojas' tenth game pitching for the Twins and in the majors. This season, he has posted a 3.32 earned-run average, a 1.569 WHIP and 24 strikeouts.
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"I don't know how Kendry did that," Roden said. "That was really incredible. It shows a lot of maturity that he's able to mentally lock in and be ready to go in terms of his preparation on the day, too. A really incredible job out of him. It put us in a position to win."
For Rojas, the success made him feel more comfortable in the majors.
"The confidence is slowly creeping in," he said.
"To Kendry's credit, and we've seen him do this, there's not a lot that fazes him," Shelton said. "We extended him past where we wanted him to pitch, probably, today. And he stepped up and did it. You've got to appreciate what he did. … It was really a team effort, but it started with Rojas."
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Taylor Rogers (6-3) pitched two innings after Rojas, allowing one hit and no runs, and was awarded the win. Tommy Nance , Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez each pitched one inning, with Nance allowing just one hit.
The team finished with six hits compared to the Athletics ' three, tripling their output in Friday's 2-0 loss. The Twins are now 52-54 and remain third in the American League Central Division, while the Athletics fall to 44-60.
They'll play the A's again on Sunday before closing out a seven-day homestand with three against the Kansas City Royals.
Briefly
RHP Marco Raya was reinstated from the injured list and optioned to the Saints. He missed around two weeks with a right shoulder impingement. In the majors, he pitched six innings over three games with the Twins, allowing two runs on five hits.
