The good and the bad of Carlos Gomez was on full display in front of a sellout crowd Saturday afternoon at Target Field.
The enigmatic centerfielder made a couple of bad base-running mistakes early on, only to atone with a game-clinching, two-RBI single in the seventh inning to lift the Milwaukee Brewers over the Minnesota Twins, 4-2.
Gomez added some insurance with an RBI double in the ninth, leaving him with four hits, a walk and three RBI in five plate appearances against his former club.
"You have to accept it when you did it," Gomez said about his early gaffes. "I'm not even thinking after it happened that I'm really pissed off. I put it away and I say, 'We have a lot of game left to play.'
"In that situation (in the seventh), I go to the plate confident and positive, trying to hit gap to gap and that's what I did."
Gomez's big day coincided with a strong start from another ex-Twin, Matt Garza. The right-hander pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and one run (earned) while striking out three to improve to 4-7.
"It came back to me," Garza said. "Felt real good. No matter how it turned out, I felt really good about how I threw. Not a lot of punchouts but no walks. Huge, huge, huge. And just attacking."
Milwaukee took control of a 1-1 game in that seventh.
Jean Segura led off with a single and pinch hitter Jason Rogers drew a walk against Aaron Thompson. Luis Sardiñas bunted them up, which led to Gomez facing another reliever in right-hander Blaine Boyer.
Swinging at the first pitch, Gomez greeted Boyer with a two-run single to left that upped his average with runners in scoring position to .441 and the Brewers' lead to 3-1.
Garza worked around a leadoff double in the bottom of the frame to finish his day after a season-high-tying seven innings.
His relief, Jonathan Broxton, ran into immediate trouble in the bottom of the eighth when Brian Dozier led off with a homer to left to trim Milwaukee's lead to 3-2. The burly right-hander recovered quickly, however, and recorded the next three outs — two via strikeout — to keep the Brewers in front.
The run was the first allowed by a Brewers reliever in 19 innings, snapping what was the longest streak in the major leagues.
Sardiñas reached on a two-out error in the ninth to put a runner on for Gomez, who smacked a double to right-center off Tim Stauffer to make it 4-2.
"(The Twins) have bad luck, because every time I come here I feel really good at the plate," said Gomez, who is 6 for 9 with a walk and three RBI in the first two games of the series.
"I'm hurting them really bad. It's nothing personal; I'm just playing my game."
Francisco Rodriguez worked around a leadoff walk to Torii Hunter to record his 10th save in as many chances and the 358th of his career, tying him with Troy Percival for ninth on the all-time list.
The Brewers grabbed a quick 1-0 lead on Twins spot starter J.R. Graham, a rookie reliever pressed into action after rain forced Minnesota to play a doubleheader in Boston earlier in the week.
It came on a Ryan Braun homer, crushed to center field just three batters into the game.
"All good. Good first day back," Braun said of his return from a two-game absence due to a cryotherapy procedure on his right thumb. "Obviously there's a little swelling and inflammation in there, but overall it felt great."
Braun's homer actually should have been a two-run shot, but Gomez was doubled off second base on a lineout by Jonathan Lucroy just a few pitches earlier.
That theme continued in the third, when Gomez singled with one out only to again be thrown out at second base. This time Lucroy singled to right and Gomez rounded the base too far, leaving him an easy out as rightfielder Eddie Rosario threw in behind him.
"Those kind of mistakes, I'm not supposed to make them," Gomez said. "I'm good enough to not make them. But we're lucky today because we were supposed to score more runs."
Garza, meanwhile, held the Twins to just one hit through four innings and escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the fifth by inducing a key double-play grounder from Danny Santana at the end of a 10-pitch at-bat.
Dozier led off the sixth with a double to left and was bunted up to third by Shane Robinson. Joe Mauer followed with a single to right to score Dozier, snap Garza's 10-inning scoreless streak and tie the game at 1-1.
"I thought Matt pitched his game today," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "That was the difference as much as anything."
Garza, who pitched five innings in relief in last Sunday's 17-inning victory over Arizona, has won consecutive outings for the first time since last June 28 and July 5.
The Crew seems to be playing better baseball since Counsell took over as manager. They still mess up but not as much as before. It was nice to see them take 2 from the AL Central leading twinkies.
