St. Paul – The St. Paul Saints didn’t finish their homestand the way they were hoping to on Sunday, losing 15-12 in 11 innings to the Omaha Storm Chasers. But left fielder Alan Roden was one of their bright spots in the Sunday matinee slugfest, having just returned from a rehab assignment on Tuesday night.
On Sunday, Roden went 4-for-6 with two home runs. One started the scoring in the bottom of the first, making it 1-0 Saints. The other one just barely over the right field fence to tie things up with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and make it an 8-8 game.
“So the thing with that one, I knew I back spun it pretty well, like hit it pretty true,” Roden said on his second home run Sunday. “So that was spinning for me pretty good. Usually, right field is pretty forgiving here; today was playing a little bit more fair, I would say. I thought it might not get out, but the fact that I spun it so well is what made it go.”
Since he started a rehab assignment on June 6, Roden has been on fire at the plate. He’s hit an even .500, going 15-for-30, drawn more walks (10) than strikeouts (6). He has put up a 1.725 OPS on five home runs and 10 RBI in just nine games.
Any nine-game sample size such as this would earn a hitter player of the week, no matter what level they’d been playing at. In Roden’s case, no single thing accounts for his seeing so well at the plate. Instead, it’s the consistent work behind the scenes that has helped him.
“I think it’s hard to say something specific, ‘Oh, I found the magic pill of hitting when I was rehabbing my torn labrum,’ or anything like that,” Roden said.
“That would just be silly. It’s just consistency with being here, the cages every day, taking some of the things we were doing down in Florida with the things we were able to do. And just really glad and feel good I was able to stick with it while I was hurt and didn’t fall behind in that way.”
“He’s had really good at-bats, squaring up the balls right now all over the field,” Saints manager Brian Dinkelman said on Roden’s performance this week. “One thing about Rodey is he knows the zone pretty well, and it seems like when the ball is in the zone, he’s always able to put the barrel on it.”
Roden had still entered the Saints series on a buildup plan during his rehab assignment. He got a start on Tuesday in the outfield, playing in the first game of the Saints doubleheader on Thursday, DH’d on Friday, and had another off-day Saturday. Finally, he got another rep in left field on Sunday. He didn’t exit any game early on a seven-inning plan, as the Saints sometimes have position players do when they’re just returning from a rehab assignment.
Now that the buildup on the homestand has concluded, Roden will be in the lineup almost every night this upcoming week while the Saints are in Louisville.
“Yeah, excited to get to a full week of games,” he said. “Had a couple of DH and a couple of off days in there. Obviously, progression is what it is. I’m ready to get to a full week and get back into play every day.”
Additional Saints injury updates
In addition to Roden coming back this past week, the St. Paul Saints should also have fellow outfielder Walker Jenkins joining the team in Louisville sometime this week after completing his rehab assignment in High-A Cedar Rapids this past week.
Jenkins played in three games with the Kernels and went 5-for-11 with a home run and two RBI. Jenkins has been out since May 4 with a Grade 2 AC joint sprain, which he suffered while running into the right-center field wall at CHS Field after making a game-saving catch.
The Saints also expect more progress in other top prospects on the IL, shortstop Kaelen Culpepper and outfielder Hendry Mendez. Both began light baseball activities this weekend at CHS Field and participated in team batting practice in the cages on Sunday. Culpepper has been out just over a week with a left hip strain, while Mendez hasn’t played since June 13 with a left shoulder impingement.
