Michael Cuddyer works to find his pitch in Twins' 4-0 win over Angels

Michael Cuddyer knew his plan against Angels starter Jered Weaver in the fifth inning was transparent and, really, not without its flaws.
"I think it was apparent from the get-go I was in football jerseys
swing mode," Cuddyer said. "He probably could have rolled it up there and I would have struck out. Fortunately, he didn't. I was just fighting."
Fighting no matter the pitch, no matter its location.
Cuddyer struck out looking in his first at-bat, popped out in his second and now here he was in the fifth inning, 2 for 17 in his career against Weaver, combating an assortment of fastballs and sliders. He reached out for pitches down and away, grabbing just enough of the ball with his bat. He lined high fastballs into the stands, lunging to make contact with yet another foul ball to stay locked in a perpetual 1-2 count.
So when Angels catcher Jeff Mathis jogged to the mound eight pitches into what was by then an epochal at-bat, Cuddyer wasn't shy about what was going on. He turned to home plate umpire Mike Winters and said, "How many times have I walked already?"
Winters laughed, Mathis returned and, finally, Weaver threw Cuddyer a strike -- a hanging slider that the slugger laced into left-center field, clearing the bases with a double that put the Twins up 4-0, the game's eventual final score.
Cuddyer didn't start the game with that swing-or-die approach. It evolved after his first two at-bats. In each of those, Weaver threw a first-pitch ball that Cuddyer took. After that, though, "I didn't see another ball," Cuddyer said. So he shifted his thought process.
"A guy like Weaver, he's so deceptive, and I've had quite a few at-bats where I'm 0-2 right off the get-go," said Cuddyer, who has four strikeouts in 18 at-bats against Weaver. "So I figured just (swing)."
Still, Cuddyer refrained on the first pitch he saw in the fifth. Considering Weaver elected to throw him fastballs on all but one of the 10 pitches Cuddyer saw in his first two at-bats combined, the first baseman expected to see a first-pitch fastball again his third time up. Instead, he got a slider and took it for ball one. He didn't take another pitch in the at-bat.
Three fastballs followed, all high, one away. He swung through one and fouled Bills jersey
off two. Pitch No. 5 was a slider and Cuddyer was out in front of it. He fouled it back to continue his 1-2 count.
Next was a fastball, then another slider, down and away, the kind of pitch that often sends Cuddyer back to the dugout. He lunged at it, another foul. Then came another fastball, another high-and-away offering that Cuddyer fouled off.
It was after that pitch Mathis made his mound visit, perhaps to give an exasperated and exhausted Weaver time to relax, to catch his breath.
It did little good.
Finally, on Weaver's ninth pitch of the at-bat and 32nd of the inning, the right-hander faltered, hanging a slider that Cuddyer jumped on.
"I think Cuddy saw about everything but the kitchen sink and finally put one in the gap, and that's all we needed tonight," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said after his team took a five-game lead in the American League Central, thanks to the Chicago White Sox's loss to the Kansas City Royals.
"He battled and battled, and I think swung at, I don't know, 10 balls that were balls -- outside, over his head -- and he kept fouling them off and finally the guy made a mistake and got one over the plate, and he whacked it. That's just the way he is. He grinds it out. He does it every day, and when he's up there, you think good things are going to happen."
Cuddyer has earned ample praise this season, and deservedly so, for his willingness and ease in taking over first base for the second straight season when the Twins lost Justin Morneau to an injury, but those good things Gardenhire spoke of haven't happened as frequently this season for the right fielder turned first baseman. After hitting a career-high 32 homers and driving in 94 runs in 2009, Cuddyer is on pace for 14 homers and 80 runs batted in this season.
None of that was on Cuddyer's mind Sunday night. All he was thinking about -- and he'd say all he's ever thinking about -- was winning a ballgame, and to do that he had to beat Weaver, any way he could.
"He's been tough on me my whole career," Cuddyer said. "Obviously, I knew I didn't have 49ers jersey
much success off him just because you know that you don't have many off of a guy, but you don't go up there being like, 'Ah, I'm already out because I don't have a good history.' You just try to do what you can because they can always throw you a strike that you can hit."