<\/p>\n
Josh Rojas had a dizzying and dazzling Thursday for the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n
Today should be significantly less hectic as the Royals look to build on their 8-6 win against the Minnesota Twins in the series opener Thursday.<\/p>\n
Game 2 of the four-game set will be tonight in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
Rojas, a 31-year-old journeyman infielder with more than 2,000 at-bats in the big leagues, was playing a day game for Kansas City\u2019s Triple-A affiliate (Omaha) on Thursday when he got word that the major league club was calling him up.<\/p>\n
Rojas exited the visitors\u2019 dugout in Columbus, Ohio, and prepared to fly to Minnesota for the Royals\u2019 game the same evening against the Twins.<\/p>\n
One problem: Rojas missed a late-afternoon flight to Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
The next flight out was more than four hours later.<\/p>\n
So Rojas waited. And waited.<\/p>\n
By the time the plane took off from Columbus, the Royals already were playing the Twins. Rojas felt disappointed and thought he would have to miss the game.<\/p>\n
An hourlong rain delay changed things \u2014 and gave Rojas a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a first,\u201d he said. \u201cI actually texted my buddies on the way (to the ballpark). When I landed, I saw that it was delayed. So I was like, \u2018I might get into this game tonight.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be the first time I got into two separate games in two separate states. It was a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an especially good time because Rojas stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and the score 6-6 in the top of the ninth. He delivered a two-run single up the middle that lifted the Royals to an 8-6 win.<\/p>\n
Rojas said he did not have time to stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust show up, get loose in the cage and get ready for an at-bat,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha (4-3, 3.23 ERA) will try to keep the good vibes going tonight.<\/p>\n
Wacha is searching for his first victory since May 9 against the Detroit Tigers. In his most recent start Sunday, he took the loss against the Texas Rangers, 6-3, after allowing six runs on eight hits in five innings.<\/p>\n
This will be Wacha\u2019s 11th career start against the Twins. In his first 10 meetings (all starts), he is 6-1 with a 3.30 ERA and has 50 strikeouts in 57 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
The Twins will counter with right-hander Zebby Matthews (1-3, 4.63), who is set to make his fifth start of the season. Matthews also is looking for a bounce-back performance after the Pittsburgh Pirates roughed him up for seven runs on six hits in 4 1\/3 innings Sunday. Minnesota lost 9-3.<\/p>\n
Matthews has faced the Royals three times (all starts) in his career, going 1-1 with a 5.14 ERA.<\/p>\n
Twins manager Derek Shelton said his players needed to improve after a sloppy series opener. Minnesota committed two errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to play better defense,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cWe cannot give away outs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newstribune.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Josh Rojas had a dizzying and dazzling Thursday for the Kansas City Royals. Today should be significantly less hectic as the Royals look to build on their 8-6 win against the Minnesota Twins in the series opener Thursday. Game 2 of the four-game set will be tonight in Minneapolis. Rojas, a 31-year-old journeyman infielder with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2447042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/After-Rojas-hectic-but-rewarding-day-Royals-strive-for-another.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2447043,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447041\/revisions\/2447043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2447042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}