CLEVELAND — Scott Baker is 7-1 with a 3.37 ERA since June 1. Even though this Cleveland lineup has been pared down with trades, he delivered tonight in an important start.

Baker held Cleveland to three hits over seven scoreless innings, with one walk and four strikeouts. He had 101 pitches through the sixth, but Manager Ron Gardenhire sent him back for the seventh, and Baker finished at 109.

“Even though I’m not as efficient as I would like, it would be tough to change my approach,” Baker said. “I think it’s one of those things that’s going to have to happen on it’s own.”

GOMEZ HAS BIG NIGHT

Gardenhire thought the Angels really pitched Carlos Gomez tough over the weekend, but Gomez was out for early batting practice today and worked on shortening his swing.

Gomez singled, doubled and homered in his first three at-bats, leaving him a triple shy of his second career cycle.

“The last thing I think of is the triple,” Gomez said. “I think more that we scored a lot of runs and won the game.”

Gomez said Orlando Cabrera gave him some ideas on how to set up pitchers better. Three games into his Twins tenure, Cabrera is not only hitting well himself (5-for-13 with three doubles and a homer), he’s also lifting others.

“The other guys here help me,” Gomez said. “Like [Mike] Redmond, Michael [Cuddyer], but it’s different because I spend more time together with Cabrera and Casilla because we’re the three guys on the team who speak Spanish. That’s fun talk to a guy like Cabrera with 13-14 years in the big leagues.”

SHORT HOPS

(*) With two RBI, Justin Morneau raised his AL leading total to 88.
(*) With three doubles, Joe Mauer raised his average to .359.
(*) White Sox win in walk-off fashion over the Angels, but the Tigers lose, so the Twins sit 1 1/2 behind Chicago and 2 1/2 behind Detroit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 10:32 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.