Twins 2, Athletics 0: Kendry Rojas and the Twins Bullpen Pitch the Twins to Victory

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn- IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

 

Box Score
SP: Kendry Rojas - 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (56 pitches, 36 strikes (64%))
Home Runs: N/A
Top 3 WPA: Rojas (0.21), Alan Roden (0.19), Taylor Rogers (0.14)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins continued to stay offensively challenged after the All-Star Break in a demoralizing 2-0 loss to the Athletics on Friday night. Saturday brought three reasons more optimism for the Target Field faithful: The Ryan Baseball Classic (a planned collection of people named Ryan), Kirby Puckett jersey giveaway day (a planned attempt to get fans to pay to see the Twins), and Athletics league-worst bullpen day (which means something to everyone in the MLB except the Twins apparently). Could the Twins capitalize on yet another chance to start winning again before the trade deadline? Or would 1,000 Ryans and 10,000 light blue reminders of what winning used to look like go home disappointed yet again?

Starter Switch-Up
Before the game could even begin, the Twins had to make a switch to their own bullpen game plan. Mike Paredes was announced as the opener and took his warm-up pitches, but right at game time Derek Shelton had to come out and get Kendry Rojas ready instead. Unfortuneately it wasn't just some creative managing skullduggery, for Paredes left with oblique soreness and was unavailable for an already depleted bullpen. Rojas took advantage of the unexpected early entry and worked four innings of one hit baseball, with five strike outs and outstanding control of his fastball which stayed around 97 mph all evening.

Twins Still Lifeless at the Plate
The Athletics went with their own lefty opener in Brady Basso, who took care of the Twins bats without much effort until Ryan Kreidler led off the bottom of the third with a slicing double to right to set the Ryan faithful into a frenzy. When Mason Barnett came in to replace Basso with one out, Kreidler immediately stole third to incite more frenzy. Barnett faced Byron Buxton, and Buxton's struggles with runners in scoring position continued as he chased a high heater. Kody Clemens is not named Ryan, and therefore he flew out to end the threat in what felt like groundhog day for the Twins offense over the past two weeks.

Signs of Life...?
The ageless left arm of Taylor Rogers got the Twins through the fifth and sixth innings with the game still locked in a scoreless tie. Barnett was still dealing for the A's, but he lost Josh Bell to a one-out walk. Then he surrendered a laser beam into the left field corner from Royce Lewis to put runners at second and third with only one out. Like clockwork, Victor Caratini popped up too shallow to advance the runners and it looked like Mark Kotsay was going to bring in a lefty to neutralize Alan Roden. Kotsay
decided to stay with the righty, and Roden decided to smash the Twins into a 2-0 lead with a blistering single to right!

Morris Throws Fire, Who Will it Burn?
The Twins looked to be in the driver's seat but the scoreboard still only read 2-0 as Andrew Morris took over in the top of the eighth. Lawrence Butler worked a leadoff walk on a full count, and Morris looked like he was going to erase it immediately as he snagged a hard comebacker from Jacob Wilson. As Morris went to turn the 1-6-3 double play he instead threw it 101 mph into center field. Buxton chucked the ball to third base for no good reason, which allowed a bad play to multiply into a runners at second and third situation with nobody out. Pete Maki slowly made his way to the mound, and tried to calm down the young fireballer. Nick Kurtz was back in the lineup tonight, and he stood in at this most crucial junction of the ballgame. Morris was up to the challenge, fooling Kurtz on a cutter for a sword strikeout. Tyler Soderstrom struck out swinging at a cutter above his head. With the Target Field faithful too afraid to watch, Morris escaped the inferno of his own creation by inducing a Jonah Heim groundout to get his team back into the dugout still ahead 2-0!

Yoendrys Gomez kept the Twins in the lead, as the Twins bullpen out-dueled the Athletics bullpen to even the series. 

What’s Next?
The Twins look to take their first series since the All-Star Break on Sunday afternoon. Twins lefty Connor Prielipp (2-5, 5.00 ERA) will return to the rotation after an extended break. Joe Ryan is getting extended rest with "arm fatigue" and hopes to pitch in the Royals series. The Athletics will send yet another lefty starter out in Jeffrey Springs (3-9, 5.96 ERA) who has a 9.37 ERA over his last seven outings.. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Rojas	47	0	0	0	56	103
Rogers	28	0	13	0	30	71
Morris	0	28	16	0	26	70
Paredes	49	0	0	0	0	49
Anderson	8	0	18	17	0	43
Adams	0	27	0	14	0	41
Funderburk	0	22	0	12	0	34
Gomez	0	0	22	0	8	30
Nance	0	0	13	0	13	26

 

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[Parfigliano]

Winner but how long can they go on using 4-5 bullpen guys every 2 or 3 games.

[wesnewy]

so much fun to watch Rojas dominate. his upside is so exiting!

[mark allen]

maybe we don't need much bull pen help. there all starting to Gell,

[tony&rodney]

The pitching has stepped forward. The Twins offense looks tired. Byron Buxton looks out of sorts. Let's hope the pitching remains nails and that the Twins bats wake up.

Ryan Day was a cool, fun idea. Lovd the big smile from Kreidler after his double. Ryan had another good day at shortstop.

[mrguy]

good win, but you know the rotation is getting too shaky at the worst time when now your depth call ups are injured... hope it's not a significant amount of time lost for Paredes, especially with the trade deadline looming, who knows what the rotation will look like by next week

[TheLeviathan]

Rojas looked great.  That trade can still be salvaged if he can stay a starter.

[thelanges5]

 

For the offense. Let’s go batters!

[RpR]

[LA Vikes Fan]

You watch Rojas pitch like he did tonight and you're reminded why we traded Varland for him. This guy could be a front of rotation LH starter as early as the second half of next year. Remind me I said that next time I advocate for him to go the bullpen. 

Offense looks tired but I think it's just guys coming back to earth. Clemens, Kriedler, and Larnach look their 2025 selves not the 2026 version, and Buxton, Bell, and Lewis just are not hitting. Caratini and Keaschall are pretty much it right now. Hopefully just a slump. Still, we need somebody to step up and get hot at the plate. Luis Arraez would look good in the lineup, particularly if we didn't have to give up a top 20 prospect for him.   

[DJL44]

Louis Varland trade wins the game.

Thanks for attending, Ryans. I feel bad that you didn’t get to see Joe Ryan or Ryan Jeffers.

[ashbury]

37 minutes ago, mark allen said:

maybe we don't need much bull pen help. there all starting to Gell,

This is part of the difficulty for the Twins brain-trust.  Is this a garden-variety uptick or have they begun to gel?  Fools Gold or precious metal?  Signal, or Noise?  A one-game winning streak doesn't tell a lot.

They might not get useful insight from their field manager; Derek Shelton never had one of his Pirates teams win more than 76 in a season so he doesn't know from the inside what it looks like to gel.  (Okay, I'm being a little harsh and much too personal - Shelton has a ton of baseball experience to draw on.  But the difficult judgment is real.)

[LastOnePicked]

21 minutes ago, wesnewy said:

his upside is so exiting!

And I hope it's just entering!

[DJL44]

Looks like Prielipp will replace Paredes on the roster. 

[Western SD Fan]

15 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Louis Varland trade wins the game.

Thanks for attending, Ryans. I feel bad that you didn’t get to see Joe Ryan or Ryan Jeffers.

Shelton did admit in his postgame interview that, had he known about the Ryan's day today, he would have started or got Jeffers into the game today.

[jorgenswest]

11 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Looks like Prielipp will replace Paredes on the roster. 

I wonder if they need to make two moves. Prielipp won’t go deep in his first start back and there has been a lot of bullpen use the last three games

[mark allen]

Andrew hit 101, think that error had him fired up to redeem his mistake, big moment way to get two k's wen you needed it.

[USAFChief]

Nice big crowd at TF tonight. Jersey giveaway was legit, right down to stitched on lettering. No cheap knockoff.

And we went home happy.

[Saxophone Joe]

I went to what I thought was a Kirby Puckett jersey/ tribute night and instead attended something called the Ryan Baseball Classic? Lmao

Game was fun as hell though. Great energy in the park and the play on the field had its intense moments for sure, with the season on the brink.

[Church of Kreidler]

Nice to see Kreidler finally worshipped as he deserves! Just a shame they couldn't Bring Ryan Home...

Glad we got the win! Now to get the rubber game!

[knothole61]

Enigma, thy name is Buxton.

When he's hot (about 20% of the time?) he's MVP quality, but does any Twin in recent memory have such prolonged slumps? Don't get me wrong, he's a great and exciting future Twins' Hall of Fame member but at times, like right now, it's very frustrating to watch him flail away at the plate and to wonder why.

Unless I've missed something, he hit 25 home runs before the All Star Game (on pace to challenge Killebrew's single season Twins' homer record) and hasn't hit one since. And when he's off his game he never sees a chin-high fastball that he doesn't love!

Love ya' Buck but please pull out of your latest funk in a hurry.  

[Peter]

Huge huge huge much needed must win !!! Need to get win today!!! Let’s go twins!!!

[stringer bell]

The Twins are the first AL team to get to 500 runs scored this season, so they still lead the AL in that category despite their recent struggles. If they continue to struggle, they'll probably be in the middle of the pack in a week or two.

It would appear that Paredes will go on the IL, so there is a place for Prielipp. Sands is probably close and Acton is also completing his rehab.

The Twins have zero major league position players on the IL They have quite a number of pitchers disabled however, but on the whole they've had pretty good luck in the injury department.

Detroit is only 1.5 games behind the Twins. I think it is a four-team race to win the AL Central with the Twins being the least likely. 

[mikelink45]

I am sure there are good reasons, but I don't understand why Rojas is limited to 4 innings in all his starts.

[HarmonK03]

4 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I am sure there are good reasons, but I don't understand why Rojas is limited to 4 innings in all his starts.

They haven't committed him to be a starter, they were using him in St. Paul as a bulk guy.  I agree, start extending his outings and make him a starter.

[Whitey333]

Buxton last Homer's was June 22, against the Dodgers i believe.  But to be fair he was on IL for part of it.  But that's part of Byrons history with Twins.  And yes so many times, like now, he looks lost at the plate.  Lewis the same thing.  Sunday I think the Twins will win big.  Then everyone will be telling us how great they are.  The team at least record wise and standings wise isn't much different from their position last year.  Even after all those trades they are still stuck in mediocrity.  Which is pretty good in the American.League I guess.  Go Twins!

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

The weird season continues. Up and down, spinning around aimlessly, But then we get really good pitching from the starter (yeah, Rojas!) and the motley crew of relievers, and the result is an unlikely win. 

[JD-TWINS]

10 hours ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

You watch Rojas pitch like he did tonight and you're reminded why we traded Varland for him. This guy could be a front of rotation LH starter as early as the second half of next year. Remind me I said that next time I advocate for him to go the bullpen. 

Offense looks tired but I think it's just guys coming back to earth. Clemens, Kriedler, and Larnach look their 2025 selves not the 2026 version, and Buxton, Bell, and Lewis just are not hitting. Caratini and Keaschall are pretty much it right now. Hopefully just a slump. Still, we need somebody to step up and get hot at the plate. Luis Arraez would look good in the lineup, particularly if we didn't have to give up a top 20 prospect for him.   

Hey - where’s there a hint of regression from Larnach??

Lumping him in with Kreidler - Bell - Clemens is nuts. He can’t get the game winning hit every other day - right?

As of Sunday morning he’s hitting .293/.381/.457 with 3rd highest OPS on the Team & a 135 OPS+. Not sure how high he has to elevate his game to get any respect in this forum?……”trade him …… why tender him……his defense sucks …… he costs too much ……he can’t hit lefties …… why isn’t he hitting HR’s at a higher clip” every flippin’ negative that could possibly be mentioned, and the guy just keeps rolling, 2/3 of the way through the season!

IMO, fans here need to open their eyes to reality.

[JD-TWINS]

18 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Buxton last Homer's was June 22, against the Dodgers i believe.  But to be fair he was on IL for part of it.  But that's part of Byrons history with Twins.  And yes so many times, like now, he looks lost at the plate.  Lewis the same thing.  Sunday I think the Twins will win big.  Then everyone will be telling us how great they are.  The team at least record wise and standings wise isn't much different from their position last year.  Even after all those trades they are still stuck in mediocrity.  Which is pretty good in the American.League I guess.  Go Twins!

Right on with Buxton, often feast or famine. Lewis, he was terrible for 2 months and went down for a bit and elevated his stats considerably since coming back. He’s got a loooong swing and he will probably always struggle with pitches moving toward the outer part of the plate & beyond. Has a couple line drive doubles in last 2-3 games. I just think he can only be “hot” for a limited time……he’s playing average or better at 3 spots on defense and performing at least at a league average at the plate since his return…….all I see are positives with his performance.

[Old Twins Hat]

5 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

 The team at least record wise and standings wise isn't much different from their position last year.  Even after all those trades they are still stuck in mediocrity.  Which is pretty good in the American.League I guess.  Go Twins!

Maybe the same record, but think of the payroll reduction that has gone into this team.  And how much younger they got, and could go younger yet.    Just getting rid of Correa was the key move, and they don't miss him.  At all.

Twins have something in Morris; he's got that strapping walk and determination needed to get outs.   A keeper for sure.  No relation of course, but gotta like the name pedigree.    A Morris was on the mound the last time the Twins were world champions.