MINNEAPOLIS – When things don’t go according to plan, people adapt.
That’s what the Twins had to do when Mike Paredes sustained a left oblique strain while warming up in the ’pen ahead of his scheduled start against the Athletics on Saturday night.
With their starter down, the Twins called upon fellow rookie Kendry Rojas to make the start in his place, and he did not disappoint in the Twins' 2-0 victory over the A’s at Target Field.
"I was not expecting it,” Rojas said through teammate Pablo López, who interpreted on his behalf. “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 [helping] us win."
Rojas, the Twins' No. 6 prospect, was already scheduled to throw in relief on Saturday night, but he stepped up and threw four scoreless innings on 56 pitches, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out five batters. He showcased a lot of heat on his four-seamer, which topped out at 98 mph and averaged 96.4 mph on the night, while his slider induced four of his eight whiffs.
“He kind of set the tone and he did a really good job,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “I think it’s important, good energy tonight in the ballpark, fans were into the game, so I was glad we gave them something to cheer about.”
“I don’t know how Kendry did that,” said Twins right fielder Alan Roden. “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 in the day too. A really incredible job out of him. It put us in a position to win.”
While Rojas and the Twins’ bullpen kept the Athletics' lineup in check, Roden came through with the big hit in the bottom of the sixth that ended a 14-inning scoreless streak to open the series.
Josh Bell drew a one-out walk against A’s reliever Mason Barnett, and Royce Lewis followed with a double pulled down the left-field line. Victor Caratini worked a seven-pitch at-bat, but flew out to shallow left field, keeping the runners at bay.
That handed things over to Roden against Barnett. A’s manager Mark Kotsay had left-hander José Suarez warming in the ’pen, but opted to keep Barnett in the game.
“Honestly, I figured if Vic didn’t come through there, he would stay in the game and that I would get the shot at the plate,” Roden said. “I figured if he got on, then they’d bring in the lefty. I was playing the at-bat along with him and trying to stay focused, stay locked in like I’m going to come up here.”
Keeping Barnett in proved to be the mistake of the game as Roden cashed a two-run single, scoring both Bell and Lewis, to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.
It was mostly smooth sailing for the Twins’ bullpen thereafter, although Andrew Morris did run into some trouble in the top of the eighth.
Morris walked Lawrence Butler to start the inning and then got a hard-hit grounder back to him at the mound from Jacob Wilson. Morris turned to throw the ball to second for a double play, and it instead ended up in center field. The error turned a potential two-out situation against Nick Kurtz into runners on second and third with no outs.
“I guess I was just so excited I got the ball [that] I just wanted to get rid of it as quick as possible,” Morris said, “which is tough because we had [pitchers’ fielding practice] today.”
But Morris kept his composure, touching 100.6 mph on his fastball as he struck out Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom before getting Jonah Heim to ground out to end the inning with no damage allowed.
“Takes luck to get out of that spot, so it worked out,” said Morris.
Even with the Athletics’ threat in the eighth, the Twins’ bullpen was able to throw five scoreless innings behind Rojas – courtesy of Morris, Taylor Rogers, Tommy Nance and Yoendrys Gómez – to seal the win.
The Twins' 2-0 victory puts them back to just two games under .500. With the Guardians losing a fourth straight game on Saturday in St. Petersburg against the Rays, the Twins are now just two games back of them for the third AL Wild Card spot.