I knew Francisco Liriano was going to struggle last night as soon as I read Joe C.’s post about the lefty’s great bullpen session over the weekend. Anyone else remember the last Twins pitcher who always seemed to find his stuff in the bullpen, but never translated that into success on the real pitcher’s mound?

That would be Carlos Silva.

Anyone who has read about baseball … or listened to announcers … or heard interviews with former pitchers… has heard/read that there can be little correlation between what happens on the sidelines and during a real game.

“I had nothing in the ‘pen and then it all came together on the mound.”

“He looked sharp in the bullpen but then he couldn’t even retire Bill Hall.”

You know what I mean.

Don’t fool yourself. Francisco Liriano was good enough to get the win last night only because the Twins took advantage of Milwaukee’s mess-ups in the field and weaknesses at the plate to jump to an early lead. Gardy said he was one batter away from pulling Liriano during the fifth, which would have deprived him of the victor. He threw 117 pitches in five innings. That’s hard to do.

It was one of those nights. The list of key offensive moments includes Michael Cuddyer’s clutch strikeout in the first inning, when he managed to wave at a curve ball outside and in the dirt that skipped away for a two-out wild pitch and Cuddyer reached first. It set up the Joe Crede double that gave the Twins a 3-0 lead and softened the pain of Liriano’s two-run first inning.

Mike Cameron’s hesitation in the second inning allowed Carlos Gomez a double that led to a run on Brendan Harris’ two-out single and J.J. Hardy’s boot in the third on a double-play grounder set up the Twins’ three-run third. Those are the places where the Twins’ seven runs were hatched.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that Liriano would be well suited to the bullpen because of his typical early-game success. But I’m not buying that. His incredible inconsistency and seemingly soft mental approach make me not want to run him out there in a close game, and I think that letting him languish in the bullpen — waiting for one-sided games — would pretty much be a concession speech. And as well as Anthony Swarzak pitched in several of his starts (three solid ones, two awful ones), I don’t know that he’s ready to go every fifth day in a title chase.

I’m holding on to the notion that Liriano can still be a front-of-the-rotation starter if he gets his stuff (literally) together. Somehow, the Nos. 3-4-5 hitters for the Brewers last night had no RBI and only one single against him (in addition to three walks). Liriano was at his worst, for the most part, against the parts of the Milwaukee lineup that struggle.

It’s frustrating to watch and seems like a reward for mediocrity — a generous description for a 3-8 record and 5.88 ERA — but the best course for the Twins may be to stick with Liriano and hope he comes around, all the while making sure that Gardy’s hook is quick enough to minimize damage to the team.

At least Luis Ayala won’t be relieving him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.