metirish

A gushing view from the Twin Cities. ] By JIM SOUHAN, Star Tribune In the third inning of his Twins debut, Carlos Gomez bunted the ball toward first base, accelerated at an improbable rate and dived toward the bag. Those unfamiliar with Gomez might have assumed he slid into first trying to avoid a tag. Those who have seen him run probably figured he was just trying to avoid slamming into the right field wall. Until baseball players are allowed to wear parachutes on their backs, Gomez might have to find creative ways to apply the brakes. He never slowed down Monday in the Twins' opener, finishing 2-for-3 with a walk, two steals, two runs, a double and a long running catch on which he covered more ground than Minnesota slush. He also drew six pickoff attempts and one pitchout and came close to christening the FieldTurf with tears. "I was so excited to be here, to have this opportunity, that when I came down the stairs to stretch today, I felt like I could cry," Gomez said. "I said thank you to the coaches and the staff and my teammates for the opportunity." Gomez promised to grab the attention of opposing pitchers, and he did so on the third pitch of his Twins career. During his first at-bat, he fouled a 1-1 pitch off a speaker in foul territory, which is a dead ball in the Metrodome. When the ball glanced back toward the field, Angels starter Jared Weaver began sprinting to catch it and Gomez reacted, almost running over Weaver on his way to first. Then Gomez smacked a high, inside pitch over the third-base bag for a double, and scored easily on Joe Mauer's single to center. In the third, Gomez pushed a bunt toward first. Weaver had no chance. First baseman Casey Kotchman fielded it and had no chance, so he flipped to second baseman Howie Kendrick, who, it turns out, had no chance. Gomez slid -- whether for safety or dramatic effect -- and, as he promised, the Angels began fretting. Weaver tried three pickoff attempts, then a pitchout as Gomez took off toward second. Catcher Mike Napoli rushed his throw, which was high, but Gomez would have beaten it anyway. He moved to third on Mauer's grounder before being stranded. In the fifth, Gomez, who sometimes swings so hard he falls to one knee, drew a walk, then two pickoff attempts, before stealing second again. He moved to third on Mauer's grounder and scored on Michael Cuddyer's single. Gomez struck out in the seventh, maybe just to give his legs a rest. "He got goosey," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's going to happen. But he had a great bunt to first base, and a Nick Punto dive, and all the pickoffs. We got it all." Even a walk. "It might be the last one," Gardenhire said. "But he drew one." In the field, Gomez handled the dingy Dome without a problem and made one running catch that might not have been fully appreciated. In the top of the fifth, with two outs and a runner on first, Gomez was playing Gary Matthews Jr. in the left-center gap. Matthews hit a shot toward right-center. When the ball left the bat, it looked like a double. When it landed in Gomez's glove, he had almost overrun it. The Twins won 3-2, and Gomez had created two runs, legged his way to third another time and saved at least one run, while Torii Hunter went 0-for-4 in his return. After the game, Twins closer Joe Nathan raved about what Hunter did for the Twins, then about what Gomez promises to do. "He was outstanding," Nathan said. "That's pretty much as perfect a game as you could write up for the guy. "When he gets his wheels going, it doesn't look like he's running, it looks like he's floating across the field. He's a special talent." Gomez looked elated and grateful after the game, having heard ovations for his predecessor and himself. "I know everybody loves a player like me," Gomez said. "Today, we hit two base hits. Maybe tomorrow we won't have no base hits, but when you play hard, everybody loves you." And when you play fast, everybody watches.

Yep, for the first time I watched a Twins game with some interest(not counting IL ).

themetfairy wrote: Irish is correct. Truly a sad day at the Pool. IIRC Piazza is among the leaders in career Grand Slams.

Piazza ?

Those were the days, the heady days of 2003.

Does Derek Bell count?

Well that was a load of bollox.

Yeah it was all OK, I guess if he went by the book(he doesn't believe in it) then he brings in Heilman to start the inning then Feliciano for the lefty, but if the inning played out the very same way as it did using those two pitchers who goes in the ninth? Randolph probably would have ended up using Sosa anyway, unless he brought in Wagner of course and pissed him off on day one.

I like this extra innings package, it's not like watching ESPN , still I won't be getting it.

TransMonk wrote: They don't look very impressive to me. Why are the Braves the designer pick to win it all this year? They look like the same team they were last year, only their defense is worse. Where did they improve? I don't get it either, the Daily News last week polled their various sports writers and a few picked the Braves, Bill Madden had a gushing article about them, he's probably friends with Cox though, Eric Young on ESPN just sounded stupid trying to explain them as his pick...Steve Phillips has the Mets over the Tigers.

Santana - 4 Wright - 2 Beltran - 1 Reyes - 1 Sosa -0.25 Schoeneweis -0.25 Church - 0.5 Heilman - 0.25 Pagan - 0.75

Good call on Cohen there Monk, he messed up a few times. I think I prefer Rose when he did TV.

I didn't know I had Extra Innings until tonight, I guess they are doing a promotion, listened to an inning of the Marlins commentry, watching the Texas at Seattle game, the home crew seems pretty good.

I suppose one could wonder about Wise being brought in in the bottom of the eighth inning, but in a a four run game would Heilman be wasted to start the eighth inning?

Probably not the place to complain about the post-game show but Matt Yaloff and Mazzilli are brutal.

Saw his first inning double, he had thoughts of stretching it into a triple.

I thought it was a good move getting Sosa in, Heilman was ready I guess if any trouble occurred.

Great start....

Fman99 wrote: Umps blew that one. He was safe. Wasn't even close was it?

I get to leave today at 3 , fuck yeah bitches,

Farmer Ted wrote: Not sure which talking head said it before the game so I'll paraphrase... "You're going to win 60 games, you're going to lose 60 games. It's what you do with the other 42 that makes the season special." Who writes this shit? I was either Eric Young or Bush that said it , although you say it was said before the game so it wasn't Bush(I thought it was) Bush was very jovial in the booth, joking with Morgan about how one of the great things about the game is that you don't have to be a giant to play "right Joe?". Talking about T-Ball at the White House Morgan said yeah I've been there "Did Laura invite you Joe?"...."no your father did"...."Oh , well your invited now Joe".... Told the story about Jeter telling him he better not bounce the ball here when he threw out the first pitch during the 2001 WS....all part of the Jeter legend.

Where did I get my fuzzy math?

Crazy, so for one seat it will cost him $40.500 for 81 games, and he has how many seats?

Oh I saw him talk about that, what was worse though was on the same Eric young( about as useful as tits on a bull) picked the Braves for the NL because of their great pitching and because "Mike Hampton is going to have a great year"......

NL EAST New York Atlanta Philadelphia Washington Florida NL CENTRAL Chicago Milwaukee Cincinnati Houston St. Louis Pittsburgh NL WEST Arizona San Diego(WC) Colorado Los Angeles San Francisco AL EAST Boston New York Toronto Tampa Bay Baltimore AL CENTRAL Cleveland Detroit Chicago Minnesota Kansas City AL WEST Seattle Los Angeles of Anaheim(WC) Oakland Texas DIVISIONAL SERIES NY Mets over San Diego(WC) Chicago over Arizona Boston over Los Angeles of Anaheim(WC) Seattle over Cleveland CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES NY Mets over Chicago Boston over Seattle WORLD SERIES My Mets over Boston.