Twins manager Ron Gardenhire addressed the team before tonight’s 7-2 victory over Kansas City with a message to relax, have fun and concentrate on the events in their own ballpark.

From his own sleepless nights, Gardenhire knew the team was pressing too hard and obsessing about every White Sox outcome.

Gardenhire wanted his team focused on each pitch, not on the out-of-town scoreboard.

So what happens on the first play of the game? David DeJesus smashed a ball toward the left-center gap. It looked like extra bases, but Carlos Gomez sprinted from center and made a nice running catch.

“That’s being ready for the first play of the game,” Gardenhire said. “Guy hits a bullet into left-center field, and Gomez got on that ball. That’s a super play to start the game.”

Gardenhire had reminded the players how many extra runs they’d left stranded on the bases, not getting runners from second to third with no outs, not getting runners home from third with less than two, etc.

So what happens in the first?

Denard Span hit a leadoff double. Alexi Casilla followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Span to third, and Joe Mauer made it 1-0 with a grounder to first.

Casilla wasn’t told to bunt but was given the get-him-over sign.

“He elected to bunt, which is a good play for him because he can get a base hit on that, too,” Gardenhire said.

The Twins pulled away from there, and with the White Sox getting swept, they shaved Chicago’s lead from 2 1/2 games to one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 11:27 pm 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.