Pressbox mood: I figured I’d give you a little taste of what goes on in the press box during games. Joe. C. and Pat Reusse might not like it, but they can go off on me later.

Joe Nathan was struggling in the ninth inning Wednesday. A.J. was digging in, and Reusse looked over at someone in the visitor’s on deck circle.

“Nick Swisher?” Reusse said.

“Yeah, he’s going to bat for Uribe,” I replied.

Just then, A.J. hammers one to center field.

“…and A.J. just doubled to center,” I said.

But Carlos Gomez becomes a blur, reaches out and sucks in the ball as the fans go nuts.

“Oh, I forgot that it’s Gomez out there,” I said.

“Torii Hunter does NOT catch that ball,” Joe C. barks out.

Reusse and I agreed.

After the game, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire wasn’t sure if that was Gomez’s best catch, “but it may have been the most important catch of the year.”

And, of course, Gomez shows up in the clubhouse wearing a Superman t-shirt.

“Every time I see the ball hit to me,” he said. “I think I can catch it.”

Every I see the ball hit to him, I should think that too…..

Minneapolis Bartman: We almost had our own Steve Bartman moment in the fourth inning, when Brendan Harris caught a foul ball by DeWayne Wise to end the inning.

A fan, sitting in the front row of a section behind third base, reached out as Harris went for the ball. It looked like he nearly touched it.

“If he had touched it, I would have knocked his beer over,” Harris said. “And he had a full one too, I saw. But it kind of sliced back, so it came back in play. I saw an arm come out then, I guess, some alligator arms.

“Close to being a Bartman moment.”

Harris tossed the ball into the stands after making the catch.

“Definitely to the guy next to him,” Harris said.

Blackie’s back: It wasn’t pretty. He had to pitch out of some jams. Alfonzo Marquez could have called a couple more strikes. But Nick Blackburn got through five innings to win just his second game in his last nine outings.

He got two strikes on a lot of hitters but got into some battles.

“It wasn’t an easy five innings,” he said, “but I felt good. I felt confident. My pitches were finally where I wanted them to be.”

Blackburn (11-10) has thrown 187 innings, fourth most by a Twins rookie.,

“Blackie was awesome tonight,” Joe Nathan said. “He went five innings, but I don’t think it really shows what he did.”

Delmon rolling: Delmon Young is batting .500 (15 for 30) during an eight-game hitting streak.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Random thoughts, The race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.