Saturday, July 2, 2011

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.

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