MINNEAPOLIS -- Alan Roden missed out on a roster spot with the Twins in Spring Training, a victim of a roster crunch and of the fact he had Minor League options. After getting off to a strong start at Triple-A St. Paul, he suffered a shoulder injury that almost certainly cost him multiple opportunities at a call-up.
Roden waited more than three months for his chance. And when it finally came, he jumped all over it. The second-year outfielder laced a two-out, bases-loaded, walk-off single in the ninth inning to give the Twins a hard-earned 6-5 win against the Guardians at Target Field on Wednesday night.
It was the second RBI of the game for Roden, who had a game-tying single in the fourth. He was called up Tuesday to take the roster spot of Byron Buxton, who was placed on the injured list with a strained right hip.
Kody Clemens led off the inning with an infield hit, and Josh Bell struck out. Royce Lewis beat out a potential double-play ball to keep the inning alive. Alex Jackson squibbed a bad-hop single to second, and Luke Keaschall walked to load the bases for Roden, who lined a single off the wall in right-center field to end the game.
The win was the Twins’ fourth straight, eighth in 11 games and 14th in the last 21. They have won four straight series and seven out of eight, and they pulled within a game of Cleveland for second place in the American League Central, two games behind the White Sox.
The hit made a winner of Yoendrys Gómez, whose emergence as a late-inning weapon is one of the biggest factors in Minnesota’s recent surge. Connor Prielipp tossed five effective innings, and Gómez was one of five relievers who pitched in behind him to keep Cleveland from pulling away.