Friday’s 12-3 victory was no cakewalk for the Twins. In the sixth inning, they had some anxious moments, when Livan was being Livan, and GoGo was being GoGo.

Ben Francisco hit a leadoff homer, trimming the Twins’ lead to 5-3.

Jhonny Peralta doubled, and Brian Bass began warming in the bullpen. Then Hernandez walked Shin-Soo Choo, bringing Casey Blake to the plate, representing the go-ahead run.

Teammates marvel at Hernandez during moments like this. Hearts are racing, and he’s the calmest man in the ballpark.

“Nobody likes to pitch in a situation like that,” he said. “Everybody knows me. I pitch that way. I give up a lot of base hits and get double plays. That’s regular Livan. So it’s not surprising.

“When you go into that situation, you can’t get too excited or nervous. You’ve got to relax and think better. Think about what you want to do, where you want the guy to hit the ball and who you want to face. I walked the right fielder [Choo]. I wanted to face Blake.”

As Hernandez said this, I couldn’t figure it out. Blake is one of Cleveland’s hottest hitters, batting .371 over the past 28 days.

This morning, it hit me. Remember June 12, when Hernandez got pounded in a 12-2 loss at Cleveland? Choo went 2-for-2 off the veteran with a three-run homer.

Then, in the second inning Friday, Choo crushed a ball that Carlos Gomez caught with his back crashing into the center-field fence. So, with first base open in the sixth, Hernandez put Choo aboard with a five-pitch walk.

“It’s something I do on the mound,” Hernandez said. “You know, maybe a lot of people don’t do it. When I’m on the mound, I concentrate on something. I don’t want somebody to beat me. I want to walk the guy, with first base open. I think that was the ballgame right there.”

Blake came up, and Hernandez threw one of those back-door fastballs, a pitch that starts outside and curls back over the outside corner for strike three. Then David Dellucci hit a liner that looked like a base hit until Gomez raced in for another catch. (When his hat flies off at moments like that, it only adds to the excitement.)

Peralta was half-way to third base, and Gomez probably could have doubled him off, but he was stuck in fifth gear. He made the throw on the run, and it was a weak two hopper. Peralta got back safely.

So Hernandez had to face Ryan Garko, who grounded sharply to third, ending the inning.

What happened there with Gomez?

“I talked to him about it,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said, “and he said, ‘When you run as fast as I do, it’s hard to’ — I can’t even argue with him because I’ve never run that fast.”

Note: Head to La Velle’s blog for lineups and updates for the next two games. I’ll catch up with you again Monday from Boston.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.