If you hit a homer, it almost expects that other guys on your team can hit home runs too (and if they don’t, you’re either not scoring more runs that inning or it didn’t matter that you hit a home run).

I mean, it’s pretty obvious that the best lineup/best inning would be one in which everyone just hits home runs all the time. But … that doesn’t really happen. Ever.

The way I see it, there are two basic philosophies for building an offense: walks + power, or consecutive hits + speed. (Obviously it’s more complicated than that, but if you were going to boil it down to just two, I think those are the two.)

And lacking consistent power hitters, the Twins need to sustain rallies by generating consecutive hits. Sometimes, they can. But the hitters just aren’t quite good enough to do it consistently, day in and day out.

The question of the cycle’s value versus getting more XBH is an interesting one. Yesterday, Joey Votto of the Reds went 3-4 with 3 HR, 3R 4 RBI, 1 BB. At first glance, that’s much better than 4-6 with 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 2 K.

But Gomez’s double and single both participated in rallies (and his triple would have, too, if not for Punto’s “bunt”). As the old conventional wisdom says, “Nothing ends a rally faster than a three run homer.” Of course, Votto’s homers weren’t 3 runs apiece (two solos and a 2 run), but the point that they weren’t part of a “rally” still stands.

Here’s something I find a little interesting: yesterday, the Reds scored 9 of their 9 runs via home runs. Whereas the Twins scored 1 of their 13 runs via home runs.

It’s hard to sustain a rally (since everyone needs to be hitting), but if a player hits the cycle and the hits either spark a rally or keep one going, then I’d say it’s a more valuable day than Votto’s 3 HRs. (By the same token, however, I’d say 4 doubles would be even more valuable than a cycle.)

The most valuable? Apparently, last season in the minors, Gomez had a game where he went 6-6 with 2 HR, 2 3B, 1 2B, 1 1B. Now that’s a good day at the ballpark.

I liked that Livan was able to fight through the ninth and get the complete game. I still think it is a matter of time until AL hitters adjust to his stuff and start pounding the ball, however I’ll ride this train as far as it goes.

I was listening to KFAN this morning and they were discussing how the cycle is kind of an overdone accomplishment. They said that even though it is rarer than a no-hitter, a no-hitter is a way bigger deal. While they acknowledged that getting 4 hits and 3 XB hits is a great day at the dish, getting exactly one of each type of hit is just kind of a random accomplishment. They brought up the point that if Gomez hits an XB hit instead of a single in the 9th, wouldn’t that be better, even though it isn’t the cycle? Either way, it was good to see him pound the ball a few times.

Twins will face two more southpaws in their next two starts, so expect the Kubel ABs to be low.