Sloppy losses don't set well with Twins manager Gardenhire

Ron Gardenhire had conducted his postgame news conference, and the media horde had exited his office.

The Twins manager moved from the podium where he answers questions to the chair behind his desk, and stared at his postgame meal.

"That's how bad it's going today," he said. "I'm sitting here eating a stinkin' tomato."

His team should have been ducking rotten fruit all day.

The Twins ended one of the best weeks in franchise history with their worst game of the young season. They lost 10-5 to a Royals team destined for another 90-loss season, marring an otherwise glorious day at Target Field.

The sellout crowd should have spent more time in the ballpark's infinite watering holes and less watching the game. Against a team that issued eight walks and committed two errors, the Twins failed to get a big hit, while starting pitcher Carl Pavano was horrid and the Twins' fielders looked sloppy.

Gardenhire said years ago that the biggest adjustment he had to make after shifting from the third base coaching box to the manager's perch in the dugout was dealing with the sheer number and variety of problems that can land on his desk any day.

Tom Kelly said there'd be days like this.

"That just goes back to what TK said a long time ago when he asked if I thought about managing," Gardenhire said, as the tomato cooled on his plate. "He said, 'A manager is going to have something every day that he has to deal with.' You're always going to be dealing with something other than the baseball field, and those are the hard days.

"Because it's never just straight baseball. It's always the little things. It's been that way since I got the job, and you expect it. Sometimes you hope you can get through a day without it, but I can't count too many."

Losing to the Royals is never a good thing, but Minnesotans -- including the seasonal laborers wearing Twins uniforms on Sunday -- might have required a reminder that baseball isn't as easy as the Twins were making it look.

Gardenhire wasn't upset by the loss. He was upset by the nature of the loss. At times, the Twins looked like they were playing soccer.

"And then Delmon [Young] throws a ball in there and it goes rolling through. Those are the things that really bother me. You can handle getting beat, but when the ball starts rolling around through the infield and you don't look like you know where to be, that's the irritating stuff. That's what you don't like as a manager, because we've been doing so well at that.

"To say, 'Yeah, you expect to have a day like this every once in a while,' well, no, I really don't. I really don't expect it.

"I know there are going to be bad days, but I don't expect it to be because of our defense not getting it done. You expect to make physical errors. Mental stuff, that shouldn't be part of it. I hold us to a higher standard than that, the way we played out there with the ball rolling all over the place."

Earlier in the week, Gardenhire broke a toe on a chair at his house in Little Canada. His doctor wrote him a prescription aimed at his wife.

"Carol owes me one breakfast in bed for stubbing my toe," Gardenhire said. "So I've got that to look forward Monday morning."

He left Target Field on Sunday night planning to hit the hot tub when he got home, and to play nine holes of golf with friends in a league on Monday afternoon.

He looked forward to the break, but the tomato wasn't sitting well in his stomach.

"I know games like this happen," he said. "But you don't have to accept it. I think we're way better than that."