Twins-Royals: Postgame
Posted on August 9th, 2008 – 11:54 PMBy La Velle
I didn’t get a chance to write about Francisco Liriano’s outing in the ink-on-paper version because the Twins being ticked off at Zack Greinke was a better angle. So here goes.
He did look more comfortable on the mound than his outing at the Dome last Sunday. He threw some really nasty sliders but seemed to be a little off with his control. He topped out at 93 miles an hour on the radar gun.
“He’s not there yet,” Royals catcher John Buck said when asked if Liriano is back to 2006 form. “Liriano was a freak before he got hurt. He was throwing 98, and there was not a comfortable at-bat against him. Now, he’s still finding it. I’m sure he’ll get a little better. Will he ever get back to where he was? He was throwing 92-mph sliders before he got hurt.”
Buck is right, but in 5.2 innings, Liriano gave up three runs on six hits with two walks and FIVE strikeouts. The slider isn’t as hard as before but still has bite.
Liriano had a chance to get out of the sixth on Saturday with no damage, but Mark Teahen’s two-run double ended his night.
“I just tried to make some perfect pitches,” he said of the sixth inning. “I rushed. But I threw better than last time. ”
I agree. Hopefully he continues to settle in and can give the Twins at least seven solid innings to help the bullpen.
“I think the long inning might have gotten to him when he had to go back out there,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He had a good breaking ball. His fastball was in and out. I think he had a better change up and breaking ball than fastball.”
16 Responses to "Twins-Royals: Postgame"
First
If Liriano can consistently get a little better in each of his starts, he could be a real force in late September. He’s already pitching well enough now to help the Twins, but he may yet dominate a few major league teams.
he may not be the 06 liriano, but the 08 liriano is, like gardy says, better than most pitchers. the twins long awaited ace for this season has arrived.
In both of his starts since his callup,he has got more swings and misses with his slider early in the game. He was getting ahead later in the game tonight, and could not get anyone to chase the slider. His last to K’s were on the fastball. I wonder if he might be tipping the slider because the Royals laid off some good ones tonight.
If Gomez had taken the right angle to he ball those two in the sixth wouldn’t have scored.
Gomez is overmatched and needs some time in the minors in the worst sort of way. Injuries guarantee he remains in the bigs though.
Gomez has saved far more games than he has had a hand in a loss.
Get used to it. Gomez is the face of baseball for the next decade.
The greatest young talent in the game.
Period.
P,
You are wrong. The angle Gomez took was the only angle to catch the ball. He didn’t quite get there. Even if he takes an angle to cut the ball off before the fence in left-center, the runners were going on the 3-2 pitch. Both runners would have scored regardless of the angle and it was a double all the way.
Gomez gets credit for making the right choice and the right effort on that one.
What a difference a couple of months makes when we got tarred & feathered by the White Sox back in late May or early June. Right now, as good as they still are, nobody is even mentioning Santana, Hunter or Castillo. Sure, Gomez struck out twice with men on base and the team was surely guilty of base running gaffes,but they’re going to continue to grow, these young players. I’m very optimistic about the team’s future. GO TWINS!!!!!!
The Twins are in first place,who would thought it!I don’t know how any would argue that next to the Royals,the Twins had the least talent on paper at least,than any team in our division,in the first 8 years of the new millenium!The FO and Gardy must be doing something right.Gardy showed his real moxie the way he diffused the Delmon brush back.Last year in Tampa,Delmon would have gone nuts and caused a brawl!
Is there any additional news regarding Young get throw at in yesterday’s game? Kinda suspicious especially coming from the same guy that hit a player in the Chicago/Royals mess.
They hit his guy in the head, and Gardy gets warned.
MLB umps suck.
T,
“They hit his guy in the head, and Gardy gets warned.
MLB umps suck.”
The umpires procedures in those cases are strictly mandated by MLB. They do what they have been instructed to do.
If they issue no warnings, and the situation escalates to chaos, their jobs are on the line.
MLB sucks, not the umps!
Actually MLB umps may suck, but in this particular situation, they are only following orders.
Sounds like Nuremburg.
Thanks for clearing that up, sane. 
MLB = Form over function and common sense
sane says:
“Actually MLB umps may suck, but in this particular situation, they are only following orders.
Sounds like Nuremburg.”
Yeah, let’s compare Major League Baseball umpires to Nazis…
(BTW, they do suck about 20% of the time).
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