May 08, 2008

Cycle!

News Item: Carlos Gomez hits for cycle in 13-1 Twins victory.

And with that, the Santana trade suddenly looks... a little bit better. Gomez is the first Twin to hit for the cycle since Kirby Puckett did it in 1986. I totally remember that, if only because I was eight years old at the time and had never heard of the "hitting for the cycle" concept before that.

I was checking the score on my cell phone, like I do most nights, and when I looked at the scoring plays and boxscore I noticed that Gomez was 4-for-6, and had a run-scoring double and triple in addition to the homer. So if that fourth hit was a single... In all, a wonderful way to follow up nearly being no-hit by failed Phillies prospect Gavin Floyd the night before.

Gomez has looked iffy since the start of the season, leading most observers to conclude that he's probably not ready, and certainly shouldn't be batting leadoff for a major league team at this point. But he's damn exciting, and as last night proved, he's capable of breakout games. I see him as a special, special player in 2 or 3 years, if not sooner.

This game had a lot of other things you don't normally see: a nine-hit complete game (by Livan Hernandez, eating innings as always), and Nick Punto driving in five runs. And most strangely? Five weeks into what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Twinkies are in first place in the AL Central, thanks to the melting down Tigers and White Sox, and the offensively challenged Cleveland "Baseball Team" Indians. Not sure if it'll last, but I'm enjoying it now.

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 8, 2008 04:37 PM
Comments

I disagree with your opinion that Gomez has looked iffy this season - he has been the most exciting player on the team this year. You never know what he's going to do.

Posted by: Jeff S at May 8, 2008 07:18 PM

Well I do know that 70% of the time he's not going to reach base. Exciting or not, that's a terrible OBP.

Posted by: Jeremy at May 8, 2008 10:35 PM

Still pretty damn exciting that you're happy with that other 30%

Posted by: Jeff S at May 8, 2008 11:08 PM

Ah, but I'm not happy with it - I'd rather have him walk more than once every other week and be less exciting.

Or, he could be just as exciting as he is now, not walk at all, and hit .380 - I'd be happy with that, too.

Making outs hurts the team; a leadoff batter with a .302 OBP will make more outs than anyone else on the entire squad.

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