Thump! Collision at 1B a Rowdy one as Roden bears brunt of it
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TORONTO -- Alan Roden has run into a few walls in his day. This time, the wall¡¯s name was Rowdy Tellez.
In the bottom of the fifth on Saturday afternoon, Roden rolled a slow ground ball up the first-base line that was fielded by Mariners pitcher Collin Snider, but when Snider tried to throw around Roden¡¯s body, that dragged Tellez right into his path. Thump.
Roden was running full speed through the bag as Tellez moved into his lane to make the catch and the two collided hard, with Roden taking the worst of it as he tried to adjust his body at the last minute. The collision flattened the 25-year-old outfielder and he stayed down, with first-base coach Mark Budzinski knelt next to him, until the Blue Jays¡¯ training staff and manager John Schneider ran out.
Thankfully, Roden wasn¡¯t injured, and after taking some time to catch his breath, he was able to stay in the game. His out was the third of the inning, though, so Roden had to jog straight out to right field to keep the game rolling.
"He¡¯s fine, just got the wind knocked out of him a little bit," said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. "He landed a little awkwardly on his leg there, but he¡¯s good to go."
Roden is rock solid himself, pound-for-pound one of the stronger players in the Blue Jays¡¯ organization, but Tellez is baseball¡¯s version of a left tackle, standing 6-foot-4, 270 pounds.
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"I¡¯m fine," Tellez said after leading Seattle to the 8-4 win with a grand slam in the 12th. "Big human vs. not as big of a human."
Late in Spring Training, Roden ran full tilt into a wall at Toronto¡¯s training complex in Dunedin, Fla. -- a real wall that time -- and wore that bright red mark across his chin for weeks. Roden tends to play the game at one speed, which is one of the many things the Blue Jays love about the rookie¡¯s game, but fortunately everyone walked away from this car crash.