Francisco Liriano’s goal was to come out of his start after having made some progress in getting his pitches in for strikes and showing he was on the road to recovery. Liriano didn’t even make it out of the first inning. That was the beginning of an ugly 11-2 loss to the Athletics.
The game started off with promise when leadoff hitter Carlos Gomez hit a solo shot to start the game. However, the Twins only scored one more run. That was in the 5th when rookie third baseman Brian Buscher singled in catcher Mike Redmond. The team was able to muster 9 hits in all but once again had trouble getting them across home plate.
Liriano wanted to show that he was back on track, but just could not seem to find the strike zone, throwing only 15 of his 35 pitches for strikes. That lack of command led to 3 walks on top of 5 hits. He allowed 6 runs in total, all within the space of 2/3 of an inning. Long reliever Brian Bass came in and allowed 3 runs in 3 1/3 innings, including a solo homer to Donnie Murphy. Jesse Crain then pitched 2 innings and only gave up 1 run, but that was a homer, also to Murphy. Dennys Reyes and Juan Rincon were able to keep the Athletics off the board in their respective innings.
This is a major setback for Liriano. If he can’t show the ability to have consistent command at the Major League level, he faces being demoted to the bullpen or even to the Minors, as is the idea being thrown around right now. No one coming off the surgery Liriano did is expected to be lights out right away, but given what the Twins pitcher showed in 2006 and his importance to the rotation, there is added pressure for him to perform at a very high level.
