Valentine: ‘I believe in (Gomez) as a hitter'

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BOSTON -- Mauro Gomez is filling in for the injured Will Middlebrooks at third base, and his night on Saturday began in nightmarish fashion.
Gomez made both a fielding and a throwing error on the first at-bat of the game, when Derek Jeter hit one at him, and then ended up safe at second base.
The pair of errors resulted in an eventual three-man home run by Mark Teixeira and an early 3-0 New York Yankees lead after one inning.
After that, Gomez made up for it, finishing the game 3-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored, and an RBI. That RBI came when he ripped a double down the third-base line in the bottom of the seventh, giving Boston a 7-4 lead.
After the Red Sox' 9-5 win, manager Bobby Valentine had nothing but praise for Gomez.
"I believe in him as a hitter," said Valentine. "I dont know that hes going to be our everyday third baseman because Will Middlebrooks is coming back. But the little we saw him in spring training and then following the reports and hearing what the Triple-A staff had to say about him, hes a hitter and its good to have hitters.
"He had a bullet off his chest tonight. Thats the only miscue he got and they gave him two errors only because they think hes bad. And Ive seen that ball hit many a time. The ball jumps up and hits you in the chest, you pick it up and give it to the pitcher. Its a hit. I dont know how thats two errors. But he gives you a good at-bat. He can use the whole field and hit a lot of different pitchers."

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