Last night’s terrific 5-4 comeback victory against the Tigers had no shortage of dramatic plot lines, from the return of Joe Mays and his $17 million arm to Shannon Stewart’s walk-off game-winner off the Rheumatoid Terminator, Troy Percival. Almost lost in all the hullabaloo was rookie Jason Bartlett’s first major league homerun, for which he was apparently rewarded with a stinging eyeful of tobacco juice courtesy of a sloppy high-five.
“We don’t have a lot of guys who chew tobacco on this team anymore,” Ron Gardenhire said afterwards. “But somebody must have had some on their hands and Bartlett got it in his eye. I don’t know who the culprit was, but I looked down there and Bartlett was sitting on the bench getting his eyes rinsed out. I guess that’s a pretty memorable reception for your first homerun.”
There were a couple other encouraging developments that were eclipsed by last night’s dramatic finish. The first –Jacque Jones’ plate appearance in the second against lefty Mike Maroth– wasn’t game-changing in any way and didn’t even result in a run, but it was one of those small, eye-opening incidents in a baseball game that reward the attentive. Jones still hasn’t shown real consistency against lefthanders, but he has demonstrated steady progress over the last couple seasons, and has looked particularly sharp thus far in 2005. Against Maroth he fell behind 0-2 and battled back, fouling off a couple pitches and working the count full before eventually coaxing a walk. His next at-bat he slapped a single to the opposite field on the first pitch.
“Jacque’s improvement against lefties is the result of a combination of things,” hitting coach Scott Ullger said. “He’s put in a lot of hard work and I think his confidence just keeps building the more he gets a chance to hit against these guys. I know people have said some things in the past, but it never entered my mind that Jacque was going to be a platoon player. We’re a lot better team when he’s in the lineup than when he’s not.”
The other obvious positive for the Twins last night was J.C. Romero’s appearance out of the pen, in which he struck out three batters and gave up just one hit in his inning-and-a-third on the mound. After rollercoaster seasons in ’03 and ’04, and a shaky spring this year, Romero is once again looking like the reliable left-handed set-up man who was so valuable to the team in 2002.
Last night in the clubhouse Lew Ford expressed confidence that, with the departure of Cristian Guzman to Washington, he now possesses the best set of wheels on the Twins. “Bartlett keeps telling me he’s faster than I am,” Ford said. “But I don’t think so.”
Across the room Ullger and Jerry White both tossed out Nick Punto’s name. “Lew gets out of the box in a hurry,” White said, “but Punto might be quicker around the bases. We’ve got a lot of guys who can run on this team. Bartlett and Rivas have got some good wheels, and Torii and Jacque can also move pretty good.”
As I started to walk away, White added Joe Mauer’s name to the mix.
“Really?” I said. “Mauer’s got speed?”
“Mauer can really run,” White said. “I probably shouldn’t let this get out, but, shit yeah, Joe’s got wheels.”
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