Continued: Gardenhire: Gomez is still a go

DETROIT -- Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has a problem.

He has a massively talented center fielder who is in a 3-for-35 skid, having slammed his bat and helmet in recent days while the player he beat out in spring training has been called up and is hitting well.

Gardenhire's solution: He's going to let Carlos Gomez play. He's not going to flip him in the lineup with Denard Span. He's going to do all he can to lift Gomez's spirits so his talent shows up on the field.

Gardenhire spoke with Gomez, now batting .256, in the dugout on Friday after watching his frustrated player.

"I just said, 'Hey, just play and have fun,' " Gardenhire said. "He brings so much to the table for our team, enthusiasm and the play in center field. I don't want him to put too much emphasis on every at-bat.

"We know what we have with him. We have a free swinger and a guy who can ignite your team. Until he learns a few things about hitting, he's going to strike out. We live with it. We're working on it. We are making adjustments. I just don't want him to get emotionally wrapped up in it."

When asked if he has thought about swapping Gomez for Span in the batting order, Gardenhire replied: "You want to knock his brain out a little more? What do you think that would do to him if he's batting ninth?"

Gardenhire said he believes Gomez might be nervous because Span, one of two players he beat out for the center field job in spring training, is batting .338 -- and that was after Span went 0-for-4 in Saturday's 6-5 victory over Detroit.

"That happens with young players," Gardenhire said.

Punto out

The Twins are racking up the finger injuries.

Nick Punto has a sprained knuckle on his left ring finger. He said he is not sure how he hurt it, but he likely will sit out today and use the four-day break during All-Star week to let it heal.

Gardenhire had Punto in the original starting lineup but moved Brendan Harris from third to short to replace Punto. Brian Buscher started at third.

Punto is the fourth Twins player to have finger problems this season. Outfielder Michael Cuddyer has been on the disabled list twice because of injuries to both index fingers, infielder Matt Tolbert went on the DL in May because of a torn ligament in his left thumb and Alexi Casilla missed a game during the last homestand because of a sore left finger.

New rotation

Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson asked righthander Livan Hernandez when he preferred to start following the All-Star break. Experience has told them that veteran pitchers, for some reason, don't like pitching the first game after the break. Brad Radke was in that group.

And Hernandez, indeed, requested to pitch the second game after the break.

So the Twins rotation will go like this: Kevin Slowey, Hernandez, Glen Perkins, Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn.

After three games at home against Texas, the Twins travel to New York for three games against the Yankees. Baker, Blackburn and Slowey are lined up to pitch in that series.

More on Liriano

Class AAA Rochester manager Stan Cliburn had the best view of Francisco Liriano's seven shutout innings on Thursday.

There were reports that Liriano topped out at 95 miles per hour on the radar gun, but Cliburn went one step further.

"He struck out one guy and hit 99 on the gun," he said.

Some radar guns are off by a few miles an hour. Even so, it shows the jump in Liriano's velocity lately. Cliburn said the lefthander's slider and changeup also have been better.

"He's starting to look like the old Liriano," Cliburn said.

Etc.

• Tigers shortstop Edgar Renteria strained his left hamstring Wednesday and is not expected to play until after the break.

• Gardenhire said there are no immediate plans for Cuddyer to have the strained tendon in his left finger reevaluated. It is not known when Cuddyer will be able to resume baseball activities.