Sid Hartman: Twins need to stop being rocky on road

As columnist Patrick Reusse pointed out in Thursday's edition of the Star Tribune, the Twins will play 22 of the next 31 games on the road starting today, when they visit Tampa Bay. With a 5-14 road record, the future doesn't look too good unless they improve their performance away from the Metrodome.

Manager Ron Gardenhire is concerned the division-leading Tigers are going to build a big lead unless the Twins, who have a 19-11 home record, improve their play on the road.

"We have to figure out a way to start knocking those runs in and get the big hits," Gardenhire said. "That's where we failed on the last road trip. Against the Yankees, we had 10,000 opportunities to get a big hit and open a game up and every one of them ended up going down to the last inning. And that's because we're missing opportunities.

"On the road, you just have to figure out a way to get that final big hit to open up the inning, and that's what we need to do, come up with some more big hits on the road and we'll be fine.

"You're not going to win your division unless you start winning on the road too."

A year ago, the Twins were fortunate that there were some good players at Class AAA Rochester and guys such as second baseman Alexi Casilla, outfielder Denard Span, third baseman Brian Buscher and pitcher Francisco Liriano gave them a lift and helped keep them in the race until the end.

"We've got a bunch of young kids at Rochester right now that can swing the bat a little bit, but they're not ready for this level," Gardenhire said. "They're not as good as what we have. What we have has to get better."

"Well, you have to talk to those guys upstairs," said Gardenhire referring to General Manager Billy Smith and his assistants who make the trades. "I've got what I've got and we're trying to figure it out."

The pitching during this week's homestand was outstanding, with the starters having a 3.15 ERA and the bullpen 1.56 for an overall ERA of 2.71.

"We had a good homestand here, we won five out of seven games," Gardenhire said. "That's a pretty good homestand.

"You got to keep running them out there. That's what we have. ... They're the big-leaguers here. They need to get it done.

"You want to stay close until you get rolling, and hopefully we will. Detroit is playing pretty good baseball and you can't let them get out of sight. We have to get going ourselves. Like I said, this was a good homestand. Hopefully, we'll go have a good series, and win a series in Tampa and come back home for three. And we'll see what happens."

"This is a 20-game stretch in a row. So, a lot of the guys are getting a little worn down," he said. "We need a day here to regroup. We just have to play these three games and get a day off, and hopefully win a series there."

This Twins club is on its way to set a record for leaving runners on base. Outside of the big three and maybe Jason Kubel, Joe Crede and Span, there haven't been players knocking in runs consistently.

Offseason changed You can't expect Mauer, who was 0-for-4 Thursday, to stay as hot as he has been lately. Since hitting the ninth-inning home run against the Red Sox in the first game of the series, the catcher was 1-for-10 with one walk and no RBI, but he is still hitting .407 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI in 26 games. Mauer had surgery last December, and as a result he couldn't do any lifting of weights or any of the normal offseason conditioning until the first part of March. And those were light.

"You wonder how important all of those offseason workouts are," Mauer said. "I couldn't do almost anything in the offseason, and things worked out pretty well."

Call questioned Mike Redmond said he can't ever recall an umpire throwing out the two catchers, himself and Boston's Jason Varitek, and both managers, Gardenhire and Terry Francona, in the same game. The four were tossed by plate umpire Todd Tichenor in two separate arguments in the seventh inning on Thursday.

Redmond insisted he got Red Sox runner Jeff Bailey at the plate. "That's all I said," Redmond said. "I got him. I thought I got him. One hundred percent got him."

Varitek got thrown out for arguing a non-strike call and Francona followed him.

Jottings Varitek, who hit two home runs in the Red Sox's 3-1 victory over the Twins, is hitting .248 with 10 home runs. Varitek signed a one-year contract with the Red Sox for a big pay cut, with an option for 2010, after rejecting arbitration and testing free agency at the end of last season.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz went 2-for-11 in the four-game series against his former team with a single, a double and a walk, and now he is hitting .194. ... J.D Drew, the Red Sox outfielder, started his professional baseball career with the St. Paul Saints in 1997 and part of 1998 while holding out before finally signing with the Cardinals in 1998. With the Saints in 1997, he hit .341 in 44 games with 18 home runs. He was hitting .386 in 30 games with nine home runs in 1998 when the Cardinals signed him.

Twins attendance is still up, with 779,624 attending games compared to 740,092 in the same 30 dates last year. ... Twins President David St. Peter said attendance at Milwaukee has been a big surprise, with an average of 35,500 fans per game. ... Twins reliever Jesse Crain hadn't pitched since May 20, when he came in Thursday to retire one man and was taken out.