Notes from the weekend

Ugly series all told against Tampa Bay for the Twins. They couldn't deal with the former Twins in the Rays outfield (Denard Span and Carlos Gomez) and the bullpen stuck so bad one assumes the trainer had to check the old guys for signs of decomposion.

Span went 5-for-14 with three runs and six RBIs. Gomez scored the winning run on Friday and hit a monster walk-off homer off the previously impregnable Addison Reed on Sunday.

Go-Go, by the way, is hitting third for Tampa Bay despite a .160 batting average. It's still early.

---

Gabriel Moya, lefty reliever I really like even through his major league numbers to date aren't good, was optioned out Sunday to make room for Phil Hughes. Dick Bremer was claiming that Hughes showed improved velocity on his rehab assignment, but we certainly didn't see that in Sunday's start.

For the first time, I now consider it a genuine possibility that the Twins will give up on Hughes relatively soon. They're on the hook for not only this season but next on his contract, so that's a genuine consideration. But when Ervin Santana returns -- and my guess is end of May at the earliest for that -- there's no room for him in the rotation. And there may not be room for him in the bullpen either.

Gotta get outs. And Hughes needs to start getting them soon.

---

Luke Bard, a hard-throwing relief prospect the Twins lost to the Angels in the Rule 5 draft, has now been designated for assignment. If he slips through waivers, I would assume the Twins will happily reclaim him.

Bard is said to have the highest spin rate on his four-seam fastball in the majors this year. That's nice. It obviously wasn't enough to keep him on the Angels roster.

If the Twins get him back, it may make it a bit easier for Minnesota to abandon the Tyler Kinley experiment. Kinley has pitched just three innings so far, and those innings haven't made Paul Molitor eager to increase his role. It's difficult for a contender to carry a Rule 5 guy.

Pic of the Week

The always demonstrative Carlos
Gomez reacts to a 10th-inning strikeout.

Go-Go is having a bad season. His batting average has been below .200 since May 11, he's spent time on the disabled list, and there was a spat earlier in which Gomez accused a columnist of not cleaning up his second-language quotes in order to ridicule him. (The editor of the Houston Chronicle apologized and said the paper would review its policy on quotes.)

I don't know to what degree Gomez' problems are related to his injury. If he's sound, I would expect him to get it going. He's a talented athlete with a record of success and he's only 30.

But it sure has been a prolonged slump.

Pic of the Week

Carlos Gomez reacts to his fifth-inning
strikeout Saturday.

Maybe Carlos Gomez would do better if he held the bat on the other end, huh?

Sometimes it seems that this weekly feature is largely devoted to Go-Go. What it is, really, is that

• he's a very demonstrative player
• in an environment that discourages such behavior
• so his antics stand out more.

I suppose Gomez had something to be frustrated about Saturday. The Brewers got beat by St. Louis 10-2, and now the two teams are in a dead heat atop the NL Central. (Milwaukee is 1-9 in their last 10 games to get to that point.)

Pic of the Week

Carlos Gomez swings out of his
helmet.

Carlos Gomez. Just because.

I was happy this week to see Go-Go in line for a starting berth for the All-Star game in the most recent balloting for the National League. He may not win a lineup place — the third spot is close between him and Andrew McCutcheon, and Cutch is only the defending NL MVP — but he wouldn't be an embarrassment if he does win.

And an All-Star lineup with both Gomez and Yasiel Puig might drive the self-anointed Guardians of the Unwritten Rules right up the wall.

Carlos Gomez vs. Denard Span

Carlos Gomez tracks down a
deep fly off the bat of Trevor Plouffe
in the eighth inning Monday.

About 13 months ago I recounted the career path Carlos Gomez, once the Twins center fielder and now a centerpiece of the Brewers lineup. I concluded that Gomez was better than Denard Span, the man who took the center field job from Gomez, an assertion that was quickly disputed in the comments.

I don't think it's disputable now.

Span since leaving the Twins: .277/.325/.380.
Gomez since leaving the Twins: .267/.321/.463.

Ah, but that understates the current status of the two. Span's numbers are from 2013 and 2014 (entering Monday's game). Gomez' begin with the 2010 season, and the first two seasons were a continuation of the frustrations that accompanied his Minnesota tenure. He started getting his game together in 2012 and really emerged last season:

Span 2013-14: .277/.325/.380
Gomez 2013-14: .292/.353/.524

Go-Go made the All-Star team last year, won a Gold Glove, finished ninth in the MVP voting. He's been even better this year. Span has never made an All-Star team, never won a Gold Glove, never drawn even a 10th-place vote in the MVP balloting. And he's two years older than Gomez.

There's been speculation already that the Nationals will decline Span's $9 million option for 2015. The Brewers aren't letting Gomez get away.

The 'respect' police

Carlos Gomez tries to get around umpire Fieldin Culbreth
and Pittsburgh third baseman Josh Harrison to get at
Pittsburgh pitcher Gerrit Cole.

On Tuesday, MLB issued a series of suspensions for Sunday's Brewers-Pirates brawl

Carlos Gomez got three games, which wasn't the stiffest penalty, and while he had said Monday he would appeal any suspension, I don't quarrel with it. Gomez did escalate matters by stepping off third base to respond to Pittsburgh pitcher Gerrit Cole, and he did swing his helmet at least once during the fracas.

But I will say this: Cole, who got off scot free, should be suspended too. He instigated the brawl just as much as Gomez did.

In case you don't know what happened: Gomez hit a deep fly to center off Cole, flipped his bat, admired the blast, started trotting to first — and only got going when the ball didn't leave the park. Then Gomez started running, and still got a triple out of it.

Cole took umbrage at Gomez' lack of hustle and said something to the former Twin, who said something back and started toward Cole, and then all heck broke out.

Here's my point: How did Gomez' lollygagging hurt the Pirates? It didn't. If anything, he helped the Pirates. Maybe, had he gone all out early, it would have been an inside-the-park home run.

If Cole's embarrassed that Gomez tripled off him without really trying, he ought to be mad at either himself for making a pitch Gomez can hit that well or his outfielders for not limiting the damage.

Too many incidents -- fights, brushback wars, whatever -- begin with one team deciding, for whatever reason, that it is their responsibility to police the other team's "respect for the game." It's none of their business. 

If Brewers manager Ron Roenicke or one of Gomez' teammates calls him out for the mistake, well and good. But its up to the Brewers to police their own dugout. The Pirates (and everybody else) should just let Go-Go go; if he doesn't run a ball out, it's bad for the Brewers and good for the opponent.

Cole shouldn't have baited Gomez. Gomez shouldn't have taken the bait. They were both wrong.

Pic of the Week

I'd say these three were giving each other a piece of
their minds, but if you added it up you might still
be shy a fully functional brain.

What we have here are three guys in the wrong.

You probably know this incident already: On Wednesday Carlos Gomez hit a long home run off Atlanta southpaw Paul Maholm. The two apparently have had a contentious past — Maholm, I know, has hit Gomez twice with pitches — and Gomez stood at home plate for a good while to admire his blast. The he jawed with various Braves on his slow trot around the bases (which, if you'll recall, is rather unlike Go-Go, who is known from sprinting out his homers).

And when Gomez approached home plate, there was Brian McCann, the Atlanta catcher, blocking the path and spoiling for a fight. Which then broke out.

Paul Nauert is the home plate ump in the photo. Why he stood by as McCann set out to toss a lighted match on the gasoline Gomez had spread over the game is a mystery. How it is that he ejected Gomez but not McCann is even more baffling. (The first base ump, Doug Eddings, was credited with tossing two Braves after the ruckus, first baseman Freddie Freeman and reserve catcher Gerald Laird.)

Gomez got a one-game suspension. McCann was fined an unspecified amount. It's not public information if anything was done about the umpiring crew that let things get out of hand, but were it my call, none of the four would be working a postseason game.

Ex-Twins watch: Carlos Gomez

Carlos Gomez celebrates his second home run of the game
Monday in the Milwaukee dugout.

With free agency and arbitration and ever-shifting budgetary concerns, it makes sense for teams to limit their future focus to five years. Five years is the period of team control for a rookie.

This is the fourth season since the Twins traded away Carlos Gomez, the sixth since the Twins acquired him in the Johan Santana trade.

Only now is the outfielder emerging as a legitimate star. It took Go-Go years to find the key to his toolbox. Could this have happened while he was with the Twins?

In retrospect, I see these problems with how the Twins handled/developed Gomez:

• He was up too soon;
• They tried to force him into a role he wasn't fit for;
• There may have been a language barrier.

Go back to spring training 2008. The 2007 Twins had one good outfielder, Torii Hunter (Michael Cuddyer had missed much of the season with injury), and Hunter had left as a free agent. The Twins traded for Delmon Young to fill one outfield spot, and had a spring training competition for center field among farm system product Denard Span trade acquisitions Gomez and Jason Pridie.

Span was the best of the three that spring, but it was Gomez who came away with the job, probably because the front office wanted something immediate on the field from the Santana trade.

Gomez was just 22, and he had been pushed too quickly up the Mets system before the Twins got him (a chronic problem with Mets farmhands at the time). He wasn't ready to deal with major league pitching.

The Twins compounded the problem by forcing him into the leadoff slot. Span's skill sets lend themselves to a table-setter role; Gomez's do not. (Even now, Gomez has drawn just nine walks this season.) This just increased the frustration felt by team management with Gomez, who was being asked to do something he wasn't likely to succeed at.

Span came up in midseason and gave the Twins a legitimate leadoff hitter. By midseason 2009, Gomez was clearly on the outs with Ron Gardenhire, who was more willing to live with Young's flaws than Gomez's.

That, I argued at the time, was a mistake. Gomez's defensive skills more than made up for whatever offensive difference there was between the two — and the hitting stats at the time weren't that far apart.

I continue to wonder how much of the difficulty the Twins have had developing Latin players in recent years can be traced to the lack of Spanish speakers on the coaching staff. Gomez. Francisco Liriano. Alexi Casilla. Only through the offseason shakeup of the coaching staff this year have the Twins added a Spanish-speaking coach (Bobby Cuellar), and even he's out in the bullpen during games.

The Twins traded Gomez soon after the 2009 season for J.J. Hardy, and Gomez was the same frustrating player for the Brewers for two years that he had been with the Twins. Just as he had lost the center field job in Minnesota to Span, he lost the job in Milwaukee to Nyjer Morgan.

But Morgan wasn't/isn't as good as Span, and last year Gomez reclaimed the center field job. And now he's clearly a better player than Span, or Young, or anybody else who was taking playing time from him earlier in his career.

It was a long time coming — more time than the Twins expected six years ago, arguably more time than they could afford to invest in him.

Ex-Twins Watch: Carlos Gomez (and a radio tangent)

Carlos Gomez emerged as a regular center fielder last
season in Milwaukee and landed a multi-year contract.

With the Twins snowed out Monday night — and probably later in the evening than the Twins would have been playing even if the weather hadn't been a horror — I spent a little time listening to the Brewers-Padres game in San Diego.

Wandering off an a tangent: Listening to Bob Uecker, for a Twins fan, used to be an exercise in contrast to the babble of John Gordon. Now it's interesting for the obvious (to my ear, at least) influence Uecker had on Cory Provus — the cadence and phrasing, the pace of their words.

Uecker came up with a passing piece of impromptu poetry Monday during an at-bat pitting a pair of former Twins, outfielder Carlos Gomez of the Brewers and starter Jason Marquis of the Padres:

Marquis
Glove on knee
Takes the sign

I recall the Twins used to have a broadcaster — I don't think it was Herb Carneal, but it may have been — who used to make a similar rhyme out of Bobby Grich, a standout second baseman of the 1970s and 80s:

Here's the pitch
To Bobby Grich
Swing and a miss

Anyway, getting to the intended point of this post: Marquis wound up walking Gomez — for the second time in the game; at that point, Go-Go had two walks and a hit-by-pitch, three plate appearances without an official at-bat.

We know that kind of thing didn't happen with Gomez in Minnesota, and I wondered if he's truly become a more selective hitter — which, if so, would definitely explain/justify the Brewers giving Gomez a four-year, $28.3 million contract last winter.

Uh, no. Those were the first walks Gomez had drawn all season.

The Twins clearly gave up on Gomez in the middle of the 2009 season. I wrote a column at the time arguing for Gomez over Delmon Young; both outfielders were flawed hitters because of their lack of strike zone judgment, but Gomez was so clearly superior on defense that he should have been starting.

Ron Gardenhire clearly didn't see it that way. During that season's remarkable September comeback, Gardy plugged the lineup hole opened by Justin Morneau's injury by installing Michael Cuddyer at first base, shifting Jason Kubel to right field and platooning Brendan Harris and Jose Morales at DH. Gomez was merely a bit player.

Soon after the postseason, the Twins sent Gomez to Milwaukee for J.J. Hardy, a trade that looked good for the first year and worse with each passing season. Gomez immediately frustrated the Brewers decision makers as much as he did the Twins — he was a part-time player in 2010 and 2011 in Milwaukee. All that talent and no clue.

But last season Gomez took over the center field job and landed that new contract. The Brewers aren't forcing him into a top-of-the-lineup role (he hit sixth Monday), and that makes his too-low on-base percentages more tolerable. He gives the Brewers some pop and speed at the bottom of the lineup, and he still has great range in the outfield. I'm sure they would love to see Gomez become a good leadoff hitter, but they aren't forcing that fit.

There are three former Twins outfielders, all still in their 20s, playing center field regularly for three National League teams: Gomez (27) in Milwaukee, Denard Span (29) in Washington, Ben Revere (24) in Philadelphia. Other than the speed, they have different skill sets — and right now, I think Gomez is the best of the three. That's not something I would have thought possible a year ago.

Pic of the Week

Ryan Braun misses Carlos Gomez with a postgame
dousing.

Among Go-Go's imposing athletic talents is the ability to duck. This one came after the Brewers had a walk-off win Wednesday against San Francisco; Gomez was 3-for-4 in that game, with a triple and a crucial infield single in the ninth-inning rally.

Pic of the Week

The irrepressible Carlos Gomez.

Carlos Gomez. He may still be missing the key to his toolbox, he may still be a source of frustration to managers and fans, but he certainly appears to enjoy his life.

Dissecting the Bill Smith era: The Hardy-Gomez trade

Carlos Gomez: Eye-popping range, head-shaking decisions.

When: Nov. 6, 2009
What: The Twins acquired shortstop J.J. Hardy from Milwaukee in exchange for center fielder Carlos Gomez.
Value: Hardy had 10 win shares and 1.3 WAR in 2010, his sole season in Minnesota. Gomez, still with the Brewers, has had 11 win shares and 1.3 WAR in 2010-11.
Twins motivation: Fill the shortstop hole and unload Gomez.

This trade came quickly, just days after the Giants wrapped up their World Series title.

J.J. Hardy: One and
done with the Twins.

Gomez had clearly fallen out of favor with the Twins. The most obvious piece of evidence for that: In September 2009, with Justin Morneau out of the lineup with a stress fracture in his back, Ron Gardenhire could have put Denard Span in right and Gomez in center. Instead, he filled the right field gap opened by the shift of Michael Cuddyer to first base with Jason Kubel and the DH spot vacated by Kubel with a platoon of Brendan Harris and Jose Morales.This was a far weaker defensive alignment, and the Harris/Morales platoon wasn't much at the plate either.

ABG -- Anybody But Gomez.

Hardy had also fallen out of favor with the Brewers, The shortstop had bopped 26 homers in '07 and 24 more in '08, but never got his bat going in '09. He got optioned back to Triple A in favor of prospect Alcedes Escobar (now with Kansas City) late in the season in a transparent move to halt his service time calendar and make him more attractive trade bait.

So the two teams traded their disappointments in hopes of filling lineup gaps.

Gomez, who lost the center field job in Minnesota after being given it, didn't hang on to the center field job in Milwaukee either. Hardy hurt his hand early in the season, started just 95 games at short and slugged under .400 for the season -- nothing that increased his value. The Twins traded him after the 2010 season; we'll deal with that trade later.

I daresay both teams were dissatisfied with the results of this trade.

Dissecting the Bill Smith era: The Santana trade

Johan Santana won two Cy Young awards
while with the Twins (2004 and 2006). He now
gets $25 million a year from the Mets and did
not pitch in 2011.

When: Feb. 2, 2008
What: LHS Johan Santana to the New York Mets for CF Carlos Gomez and RHPs Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra.
Value: Santana has earned 49 win shares and 14.4 WAR since the trade. Gomez has 30 WS, 4.1 WAR; Humber 13 WS and 3.4 WAR; Mulvey 0 and -0.5. Guerra has not reached the majors.
Twins motivation: Avoiding Santana's walk year; secondary motivations, trimming payroll, adding an outfielder.

Underlying the decision to trade Johan Santana during the 2007-08 offseason was the minor circus that accompanied Torii Hunter during his 2007 walk year. It seemed to team management that every road trip brought the same story: Where will Hunter play next? And Hunter was only too willing to fuel the speculation.

Correctly or not, Ron Gardenhire and Co. felt that was a factor in the team's decline in 2007. When, in the immediate wake of that disappointing season, Santana indicated that he was not likely to re-sign with the Twins, the brass felt it best to trade him immediately.

The Twins say
Deolis Guerra was
effective after being
moved to the bullpen
last season in
Double A.

It's an arguable decision. The Twins could have kept Santana for 2008, offered him arbitration and pocketed a pair of draft picks when he left. On the other hand, the media circus that accompanied the winter meetings that offseason, when there was a fresh rumor every few hours, suggests that the issue of Santana's future would have dominated the 2008 season.

Just going off the results, however, hanging on to Santana for 2008 might have worked better for Minnesota. Gomez never fully earned Gardenhire's confidence and ultimately lost his starting spot in the outfield to Denard Span. Humber washed out with the Twins and then Kansas City before emerging last season as a respectable starter for the White Sox. Mulvey's career appears to have stalled. Only Guerra remains in the Twins system, and he looks less like a useful piece each year.

Theoretically, the four players the Twins got in the Santana trade were more than the equivalent of a (low) first round pick and a sandwich pic. It simply didn't turn out that way.

Gomez and Mulvey were more valuable to the Twins in terms of what they got in future trades than for what they did in Minnesota.

Three great Game Fives

Wake me up before you Go-Go: The Brewers charge the field to celebrate
as Carlos Gomez slides home with the winning run Friday.

Three of the division series went to a fifth game; all three were excellent contests. All were one-run affairs; one went extra innings.

Fox may not be happy that the Yankees and Phillies have been eliminated; the News Corp bean counters may dread the possibility of a Detroit-Milwaukee World Series. But these results pleased me, not least because of the roles certain recent members of the Twins played in those games.

When Carlos Gomez was perched on second base in the bottom of the 10th inning in Milwaukee on Friday night, I flashed back to Game 163 in 2009 — a stirring game in the Dome. Remember? It was Go-Go who carried home the winning run that night.

Among Nick Punto's crisp defensive
plays was this tag on Chase Utley
on a stolen base attempt.

And it was Go-Go who brought the run home on Friday for the Brewers. Good for him. I continue to believe that Gomez will thrive if he lands on a team that can put him in center field and at the bottom of the lineup. He hasn't found that team yet. Maybe he never will.

Also on Friday, Nick Punto played a sparkling game at second base for St. Louis. Punto missed a lot of time with injuries this season, so even if the Twins had kept him, he probably wouldn't have been the reliable Plan B for the infield that he was for so many seasons for Ron Gardenhire. The Twins didn't adequately replace him.

And, of course, Delmon Young on Thursday hit his third home run of the series as the Detroit Tigers knocked off the Yankees. At this writing, I don't know if Young, who strained his oblique Thursday, will be available for the ALCS against Texas.

The Rangers figure to have three lefties in their rotation, so Detroit would be better off with Young in the lineup — if he can swing the bat freely. He missed a month for the Twins with an oblique strain this summer, so I suspect he's not going to be useful in the coming series.

Late night: Twins 6, Brewers 2

Stormy weather meant Friday's game didn't start until after
9 p.m., which means it didn't end in time for our press start.

Game story here.

Box score here.

Nice game for the Twins. Joe Mauer had three hits, Jim Thome hit a three-run homer,  Francisco Liriano went seven strong innings, and Joe Nathan and Glen Perkins give the Brewers nothing in their two innings.

It was also a nice game for Carlos Gomez, who homered and doubled off his old teammate.

Go-Go's having the same problems in Milwaukee that he did in Minnesota, exasperating everybody with his inconsistency. He's been reduced to the minor role in a center field platoon with Nyjer Morgan, and while Morgan's not a terrible player, I think Gomez has more to offer.

The ideal thing for Gomez would be for his manager to write him into the bottom of the lineup daily and tell him to go catch everything in the outfield. The Brewers, who have below average defenders at almost every position, would particularly benefit from a daily dose of Gomez' defensive range.

But the Brewers can't avoid putting Go-Go at the top of the lineup. They have Yuni Betancourt at short and Jonathan Lecroy catching, and they also belong at the tail end of the lineup — and neither one can move. So Gomez hits second when he's in the lineup, and that just heightens the frustration when he flails and fails at the plate.

Ex-Twins watch: Potentially serious injuries

Those of us who (sarcastically) figured that you couldn't hurt Carlos Gomez by hitting him in the head were wrong.

Go-Go took a pitch in the helmet Monday night, sat out two games, had tests on Thursday and now has gone on the disabled list with a concussion.

As far as I know, he doesn't have the concussion history of Justin Morneau (who has missed almost a month now) or Corey Koskie (whose career was derailed by post-concussion syndrome), but brain injuries are brain injuries. This might take a while, or he might be ready to go-go again before the DL stint expires.

It has not been a good season for Gomez, whose 2010 stat line looks a lot like last season's. I still root for the kid, but he's clearly as exasperating a talent in Milwaukee as he was with the Twins.

---

Another Carlos with a Minnesota background is on the DL. Carlos Silva left Sunday's start with shortness of breath and heart symptoms. He is to have cardiac catheterization on Monday.

Silva has had a good season, although the stats have been deteriorating of late. The Cubs have many problems, but Silva hadn't been one of them. Until now.

ALDS Game 2: Yankees 4, Twins 3, 11 innings

Ouch. And double ouch.

The bitter part of me jeers that Mark Teixeira's walk-off homer was just as inside the line as Joe Mauer's leadoff "foul ball" in the top half of the 11th inning.

But the fact remains that the Twins had the bases loaded with nobody out in the 11th and did nothing with it. Both Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez went out on the first pitch, although Young did hit a hard liner. Go-Go was fooled but went ahead with his first-pitch hack anyway.

And, of course, Gomez's pratfall early in the game cost the Twins a run.

Bottom line: The Twins found ways, again, to blow an imminently winnable game at Yankee Stadium.

You can blame the umpire if you want. But Phil Cuzzi's missed call — like Randy Marsh's missed calls in Tuesday's Game 163 — had less of an effect on the outcome than the mistakes and blunders of the players.

And now the Twins are down 2-0 in a best of five series.

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One aspect of this year's division series that is jumping out at me is the horrid umpiring. C.B. Bucknor had a brutal game at first base in the Thursday opener of the Angels-Red Sox series. Chuck Meriweather, if the TBS pitch track graphic has any accuracy at all, had no idea where the outside corner was Friday in the Twins game. Cuzzi's mistake in that same game was blatant. Bob Davidson, my personal choice as worst umpire going, has had a plate assignment.

And while Game 163 wasn't actually a playoff game, it was not well umpired either.

Some of these guys, to put it brutally, have little business umping major league games, period, much less playoff games.

As I understand it, the World Series and LCS assignments are based strictly on merit. The playoffs, not so much. Merit counts, but there's a rotation used as well — and let's face it, there aren't enough really top-flight umpires to fill 24 slots.

The more screwups they have in the postseason, the more calls there will be to install instant replay reviews for everything. As if games involving the Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals aren't too long already.

The player to be named is named Mulvey

Kevin Mulvey, one of the pitchers the twins got in Johan Santana trade, is headed to Arizona as part of the Jon Rauch trade.

Judging from the above statement from the Twins, there's cash flowing in both directions as well, but that's probably a technicality. The trade was Rauch for Mulvey, and I'm fine with that. Happier with that than I was with Carl Pavano for Yohan Pino, because Rauch will be around next season.

Mulvey hadn't developed the way I, and I assume the Twins, expected he would when they got him. Here are his pro ball numbers. Note the slight regression while repeating Triple A this year. Almost exactly the same innings, but more walks, fewer strikeouts and a worse ERA. He certainly didn't improve.

Which is why it's Jeff Manship (above) getting the start today against the White Sox. It's not that the Twins expect Manship to be great; by all accounts, they think he's up too soon. But the Twins clearly had come to regard him as a better option than Mulvey.

The trade of Mulvey, coupled with the fact that Phil Humber has been dropped from the 40-man roster twice this season, breaks the direct take from the Santana trade down to Carlos Gomez and Deolis Guerra, although the Twins now have Rauch as a spinoff. Guerra has at least had a decent bounce-back season after a rough 2008 — note the vastly improved walk and strikeout rates.

And on the 10th day they rested

A 6-3 road trip isn't shabby, and now the Twins get to rest their aches and pains a day before taking on the first-place Detroit Tigers.

A new notes and numbers:

* Joe Mauer's 3-for-3 performance Thursday lifted his batting average nine points (.392). It says something about him that he hit .353 for the month of June and it still feels disappointing.

*Carlos Gomez (above, with Michael Cuddyer) started the last two games of the Kansas City series, with Delmon Young on the bench. Neither is hitting much, but Go-Go is far better in the field, so that's the preferable alignment — although it must be pointed out that Denard Span hit just .208 in June. This bears watching.

As for Gomez: His walk rate this year is almost double last season's, suggesting that he's being more selective. But his pitches seen per plate appearance is down, suggesting that he's being less patient. What I think the combination means is fewer swings-and-misses.

*Glen Perkins may be evolving into a different pitcher, one with a better long-range future. His strikeout rate is still marginal at best, and actually down slightly from last season, but he's walking about half as many hitters as he did in 2008. And he's getting more ground balls. He's always been a pronounced fly ball pitcher; this season it's essentially one grounder per fly.

A flyball pitcher with walks and few Ks has a limited future; a lefty who limits walks and gets grounders can thrive without a high strikeout rate.

Oakland 4, Twins 3 (Monday night)

About 10 days ago, there was a lot of chatter about the idea of Anthony Swarzak (right) displacing Francisco Liriano or Glen Perkins in the rotation.

I doubt that was ever seriously contemplated by the people with the responsibility of making such decisions. If it was, Swarzak's performance Monday night did much to discourage such a move.

He was wild. Officially, he threw more strikes than balls — 46 strikes, 35 balls  — but that was strictly because of the generosity of home plate umpire Wally Bell.  He bounced a pitch off Aaron Cunningham's helmet. His ERA is now 5.23, and he has walked nine batters in less than 21 innings in his four starts. 

That's no way to pitch your way into the Minnesota rotation. 

* Swarzak doesn't get the loss on his record; that goes to Luis Ayala, who gave up the home run to Jack Cust that put the A's ahead. I'm still not completely sold on him, but that was the first earned run charged to him since May 18, and he's taken his ERA down from 5.71 to 4.10. He had three strikeouts in 1.3 innings Monday, 21 strikes and just eight balls. It wasn't a horrid outing, but it's an "L" anyway. 

* Carlos Gomez had a very good bases-loaded at-bat in the fourth inning — taking every pitch and walking on the 3-1 pitch to bring home the first run. He supposedly spent the winter working on taking pitches, and I wondered if he's really seeing more pitches per plate appearance this year. Nope. Entering Monday, Gomez was seeing 3.35 pitches per trip to the plate; last season it was 3.41.

Delmon Young — another Twins outfielder with notoriously poor strike zone judgment — is seeing more pitches: 3.59 last season, 3.74 this year. Not that it's helping any. 

*Craig Breslow — speaking of people who've lowered the ERA — had a 6.28 ERA with the Twins, 2.16 since Oakland picked him up. He pitched Monday in the eighth inning; Joe Mauer singled, Justin Morneau flew out, and then the A's brought in a right-hander to get Michael Cuddyer to ground into a DP. Seven pitches for Breslow, four of them strikes. Not real impressive, but it got the job done.

* One final note: Jack Hannahan, former Mankato Masher and Minnesota Gopher, had the big three-run double after Swarzak's wildness set things up in the fourth. 

---

The first two rounds of the amateur draft are to be held later tonight (I'm posting this after midnight); for a variety of reasons, personal and professional, I'm unlikely to comment on the Twins picks as soon as I have the past couple of years. I expect to get something up early Wednesday.