Jamey Carroll was by his locker Tuesday night, and the scribes needed the obligatory opposing hitter comment after Jerome Williams twirled his three-hit gem to lead the Angels over the Twins 4-0.
"It's hard for me to say because you guys could throw to me right now, and I'd have trouble barreling it up, to be honest with you," Carroll said.
You have to admire Carroll's candor. A 2-for-22 skid has dropped his average to .207. Manager Ron Gardenhire swapped him with Alexi Casilla in the batting order -- moving Carroll from second to ninth -- and they combined to go 0-for-7.
"Sometimes if you bat second, you try to overthink some things," Gardenhire said before the game. "I think Jamey has been doing a great job. His batting average is not great right now but his on-base percentage is still .320 or something. So that's pretty good for a second hitter and I have no doubt he can handle that. But Alexi is swinging it pretty good. And I want to get some people on in front of those [middle-order] guys."
Carroll didn't disagree that he might have been trying to do too much in the two-hole.
"I wasn't doing something right, you know, it's obvious," he said. "I knew Lexi was hitting well, and I was surprised that didn't happen sooner to be honest with you."
* For Williams, 30, it was his second career shutout. The first came June 27, 2003, which was 3,201 days ago.
Francisco Liriano vaguely remembers Williams from their days with the Giants. Liriano signed with them in 2000.
