Gomez leads Brewers' attack over Twins

Carlos Gomez.

The mere mention of his name can make a baseball fan laugh because of his antics on the field or grimace because the mistakes he still makes.

But he's a two-time All-Star since being traded by the Twins for J. J. Hardy in 2009. There was good Gomez and bad Gomez at Target Field on Saturday, with the good Gomez fueling the Brewers to a 4-2 victory.

"They have bad luck," Gomez said of his former team, "because every time I come here I feel really good at the plate."

Gomez went 4-for-4 with three RBI. His two-run single in the seventh off Blaine Boyer broke a 1-1 tie and his RBI double in the ninth off Tim Stauffer restored Milwaukee's two-run lead. Gomez is batting .369 in 24 games against the Twins and .400 (20-for-50) with 13 RBI in 13 games at Target Field.

"Obviously, I don't want him to do it against our team too often," Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe said, "but he's fun to watch play."

Gomez's play has helped Milwaukee win the first two games of this series, the Twins' first series loss at home since April 27-29 against Detroit. With an announced sellout crowd of 38,707, Twins fans had to endure "Let's Go Brewers" chants for a second game in a row.

Bad Gomez owned the beginning of the game. He bunted starter J.R. Graham's first pitch for a hit, then stole second. He immediately took off for third on Jonathan Lucroy's line drive, but it went straight to Brian Dozier at second for a double play. The next batter, Ryan Braun, homered for a 1-0 Milwaukee lead.

More bad Gomez in the third. He singled to right, then took off when Lucroy singled. Gomez turned for third, then changed his mind. But right fielder Eddie Rosario smartly threw behind him and Gomez was tagged out trying to dive back to second.

"On the bases, he's looking to do all of us a favor and speed the game up a little bit, which we all appreciate," Braun said. "That's how he plays the game. It's all-out. There's going to be some mistakes that are made on occasion, but he's so much fun to watch."

The Twins were worried about their pitching staff coming in, as Graham was making an emergency start. But the rookie got through four innings with only the one run. Ryan Pressly (3-2) pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth but was tagged with the loss after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh.

The bigger problem for the Twins was that their usually functional offense was 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Former Twins righthander Matt Garza (4-7) gave up only one hit in the first four innings. In the fifth, the Twins loaded the bases with no out, but Aaron Hicks popped out on a hanging breaking ball for the first out. Danny Santana then fouled off seven pitches in an epic at-bat but grounded into a double play for only the third time all year.

The Twins finally broke through on Joe Mauer's tying RBI single in the sixth. But Gomez struck back in the seventh with his two-run single on a slider that was below the strike zone. First base was open, but Twins manager Paul Molitor elected to pitch to Gomez. And Molitor went with his best setup man in Boyer despite Gomez batting .280 vs. righthanders as opposed to .200 vs. lefties.

"He's so aggressive, you think you might have a chance to find a way to wiggle your way out of a jam," Molitor said of Gomez. "[Boyer] threw a ball down in the zone, but it was in the middle and he was able to go down and hit it and get those couple runs in."

Dozier homered in the eighth to make it 3-2, but Gomez responded with an RBI double in the ninth, taking advantage after Luis Sardinas reached on Plouffe's two-out error.

"It's nothing personal," Gomez said. "I just have to play my game."