Danny Valencia comes through in clutch

Danny Valencia ranks 10th among the Twins' position players with more than 100 at-bats with a .232 batting average.

But Valencia has proved that batting average is not as important as runs batted in, in which he leads the team with 51. Valencia also has 13 game-winning hits and four walk-off hits over the past two seasons.

Those statistics include his two crucial hits in the final two victories of the series with Cleveland this week -- a two-run single in the ninth inning in Tuesday's 2-1 win and a tiebreaking eighth-inning single that drove in the go-ahead run Wednesday in a 7-5 victory. Valencia leads the team with walk-off hits this year at three.

Only Michael Cuddyer, with 160 total bases, has more than the 135 of the former University of Miami standout. Valencia also is second on the team in homers with 11, behind only Cuddyer's 14.

With Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Denard Span, Delmon Young and Jim Thome out for long stretches, it has been Valencia and Cuddyer who have carried a team that has had a hard time scoring runs.

Last season Valencia hit .311 with seven homers and 40 RBI in 291 at-bats after being called up on June 3, so he has shown he can hit for a high average as well as for power.

"I like to consider myself one of the big hitters, also," Valencia said. "But hitting behind Jim Thome, obviously you know they're going to pitch around him to get to me, so being able to come into those situations and capitalize and get the job done for our team to win is all that I care about, and I'm happy we got a win."

Does he feel pressure coming up so many times with the tying or winning runs on base?

"You can never get enough of those [at-bats], you want as many as you can get," Valencia said. "To have a lot of RBI and some homers and just have production, just helping the team win games is all I care about, really. But I would like to get my average up.

"I don't feel too much pressure; occasionally I do, more so from my mom, but I don't feel that much pressure out there because it's just easy for me to relax, really."


(startribune.com)