Nightly Notes: Game #6

The Twins have made it back to .500 after beating the Royals 6-4 today, securing the team's first series victory of the season and putting them in a position to go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon. Here are some thoughts from the game:

1.) One day after playing a vital role in a Twins win, Carlos Gomez today struggled mightily at the plate going 0-for-4 with 3 K's. Was this (1) A sobering reminder of his youth, (2) an indication that he's worried about Denard Span being in town, or (3) just one of those days? I'm inclined to vote for options 1 and 3, with option 3 being the most important. We knew he couldn't stay as hot as he was, and Gil Meche is a reasonably good pitcher. Hopefully he bounces back tomorrow.

2.) Livan Hernandez wasn't as good today as he was in his first start, but he still did exactly what the Twins brought him in to do -- eat innings and give his team a chance to win. Today was not technically a "quality start" for Hernandez because he gave up 4 runs, but I'll take 7 innings and 4 runs out of Hernandez without any complaints. Most impressively to me, Hernandez kept his WHIP down for the second straight game -- he gave up 7 hits and 0 walks in 7 innings for a 1.00 WHIP, after doing equally well in that category in his first start. That is incredibly encouraging, because if he can keep his WHIP down he should avoid giving up huge innings, and that means he's more likely to keep the game close for the offense.

3.) I mentioned yesterday that Brendan Harris might not want to stay sick for too long lest he get overtaken on the depth chart by Matt Tolbert. Looks like Tolbert had the same idea -- he went 2-for-4 today with a couple of runs scored, playing an integral role in the game. He also looked pretty good in the field. This could get interesting!

4.) The Twins have now made three errors this year -- and two of them have been committed by "slick-fielding" shortstop Adam Everett. If you're not going to hit a lick, you better play defense as well as advertised, no? It's early, and I'm sure Everett will be fine over the course of the season, but 2 errors in 6 games is not a particularly great start for someone known for his defense.

5.) Congrats to Craig Monroe for picking up his first Twins hit today, and to Justin Morneau for breaking out of what has been a pretty nasty early-season slump with a mammoth homer and a nice double. The four RBI's Morneau picked up today were obviously decisive, and he was obviously the MVP of the day.

6.) Denard Span tomorrow, perhaps? With righty Brett Tomko on the mound for the Royals, it would make sense to have Span in RF and Kubel as the DH, wouldn't it? We'll see what Gardy has planned (I'm sure whatever decision he makes will infuriate a fair number of fans -- seems like patience with Gardy is low right now for some reason).