The Twins probably didn’t get to their homes this morning until at least 2 a.m. They were gone 15 days. They went 5-9 and ended the trip with a 9-0 loss to Toronto on Thursday, their worst effort, by far, in 14 games.

They’ll wake today (eventually) and drag themselves to the Metrodome. Sure enough, they’ll face the one Tigers pitcher who has been on top of his game all year, in Armando Galarraga.

The rookie righthander is 12-4 with a 3.17 ERA for the season, and 5-0 in his past eight starts.

Francisco Liriano flew home Thursday, ahead of the team, giving him more time to settle in before tonight’s start. He is 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA in six starts since returning from Rochester, but the schedule has been soft, and the Tigers will be his toughest test to date.

For all their struggles, the Tigers are averaging 5.04 runs per game. Since his comeback, Liriano has faced Cleveland (4.86 runs per game), Kansas City (4.14) and made two starts apiece against Seattle (4.18) and Oakland (3.88).

Note: Check back here this afternoon for the starting lineups.

Update (2:05 p.m.): As La Velle noted in his Brian Bass-to-Baltimore post, the Brewers have indeed signed Mike Lamb today, with the Twins still on the hook for the bulk of the contract. More on those deals later.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 10:07 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.