Notes: Bobblehead excites Baldelli

August 4th, 2021

CINCINNATI -- No wonder there were good vibes for the Twins on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park.

As Grateful Dead music played during batting practice before Tuesday night’s game, there was a sense that this was going to be one of those feel-good nights for Rocco Baldelli and his Twins.

And that sense was spot on. Not only did they rally in the ninth for a 7-5 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park, Baldelli’s Twins were visiting Cincinnati as the Reds were celebrating Jerry Garcia night with a bobblehead giveaway.

Reds manager David Bell, aware that Baldelli is a big fan of the Grateful Dead, sent over a Jerry Garcia bobblehead and some Cherry Garcia ice cream.

The bobblehead found a place on Baldelli’s desk in the visitor’s clubhouse at Great American Ball Park before Wednesday’s game.

“In fact, he pushed me to try to figure out how we can have Jerry Garcia night at our place,” said Twins senior director of communications Dustin Morse. “So, I got to work on that.

“Rocco doesn't get overly excited, but he was pretty excited. The music was playing when he came out. He seemed very excited about it.”

Almost as excited as he was when Jorge Polanco launched his go-ahead three-run homer down the right-field line in the ninth off Reds closer Heath Hembree.

Sometimes it just pays to be in the right place at the right time.

All hands

Baldelli said that while will continue to get closing chances in the bullpen, he plans on looking at a number of pitchers in that role. As a matter of fact, everyone could be called upon to save games.

“Alex is going to get a fair number of them, but honestly every other person in our bullpen could get one or more as well,” Baldelli said. “So, it's going to depend on what's going on in our bullpen and our usage. There’s a lot of different factors, but I will tell you that every guy in our bullpen is going to have to be ready to pitch whenever we need him to pitch. And I could see several of those guys, if not all, pitching at some point in the ninth inning, when we need them.”

Now pinch-hitting …

Baldelli acknowledged that he is considering using pitcher as a pinch-hitter. It was Maeda who started the three-run rally in the fifth Tuesday with a single. Maeda, who homered in his first MLB game in 2016, went 1-for-3 Tuesday in his first plate appearances of 2021.

“So, we're not that far away from that point,” Baldelli said. “That could actually be a thing, especially if we played more National League games. I think we would see that. I think we would send him up there at times. There are going to be times where you're going to run out of position players, just because of the way the game is played and potentially even some points earlier in a given game where maybe a little bit more of a lower-leverage situation, where you don't want to use one of your guys before you really need to.

“I think we could actually do that on days where he wasn't pitching. I think there are a lot of ways to use a guy like that. We put him in the game to pinch-run the other day, so he's a good athlete. ... You can do a lot of different things, and he likes it, knock on wood. He's a pretty durable guy, takes care of himself well. He runs [bases], and so you're a little less concerned about using a guy like that, but he can swing it.”