Lights Out Liriano, Twins Win 4-1 (A good, bad, ugly recap)

I honestly try to be an optimistic fan, I really do. I’m always looking for the bright side in a Twins’ loss, trying to find the positives in a bad season and otherwise viewing the Minnesota Twins in a ‘glass half full’ perspective.

That being said, I came into last night’s game with very little optimism. The White Sox were putting Jake Peavy on the mound, who in 14 1/3 innings at Target Field, had yet to allow a run to score. Meanwhile the Twins were rolling out Francisco Liriano, the physical embodiment of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

On paper, this looked like a White Sox win. Then again, games aren’t played on paper (enter your own sports cliché here).

The Good: Good Frankie continues to make appearances. While Liriano had improved over his last five starts (1-2 record with a 2.67 ERA), he had yet to face ‘elite’ competition. Twins fans can be forgiven for saying “let’s wait and see” when it came to Liriano’s sudden turnaround. He had been so disastrously bad that a team desperate for starting pitching chose to move him to the bullpen.

Last night, Liriano proved that his sudden ‘fix’ wasn’t just pitching against bad teams. Liriano pitched 7 innings (his longest outing since August of 2011) allowing only 4 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 5. Of the 21 outs Liriano caused, 10 were ground ball outs and 5 were strikeouts. That’s a good indicator that Liriano has fixed his early season issues. He’s not leaving the ball up in the zone and not allowing batters to get solid contact on the ball. It may be too late now, but the return of a reliable Francisco Liriano is always going to be a good thing for the Twins.

The Bad: Last night’s offense nearly left Liriano hanging once again. On the surface, things looked great as the Twins jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on Peavy and the White Sox while striking for 14 hits. A closer look shows that this game should have been a whole lot uglier, however.

The Twins left 13 runners on base, squandering scoring opportunities in the 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th and 8^th. While this team does not struggle to score with runners in scoring position like they did at the beginning of the season, tonight’s outing was frustratingly reminiscent of those early season games. Thankfully the offense pushed across enough to earn a win – making this “bad” a lot less painful than it could have been.

The Ugly: In a well played 4-1 win where both pitchers had strong outings and both teams played well, you really have to dig to find an ugly moment. Luckily (?) Ron Gardenhire had a head scratching moment in the bottom of the 7^th that was dumb enough to qualify for the “ugly” portion of this recap.

In the bottom of the 7^th, with the Twins holding on to a 3-1 lead, the offense started to catch fire. Ben Revere singled, Joe Mauer singled (moving Revere to 3^rd), Revere tried to steal on a dropped ball by Pierzynski (bad idea, and runner up for ‘ugly’ moment of last night’s game) and was called out at home. Josh Willingham walked, as did Justin Morneau, loading the bases for Trevor Plouffe. Plouffe made solid contact with the ball, but was robbed of a hit by Alex Rios, who made a great shoestring catch to limit the Twins to one run (Mauer smartly advanced on the throw in to first).

Brian Dozier stepped to the plate and earned a walk, loading the bases once again for Drew Butera. Now, Butera is an improved hitter this season in comparison to last season, but Butera isn’t exactly the guy you want at the plate with the bases loaded and two out.

On the bench, the Twins had Ryan Doumit, a player who you would LIKE to have up to bat with the bases loaded and two out. Even better, Doumit plays Butera’s position! Common sense would seem to dictate that the Twins pull Butera and send in Doumit to bat and catch the last two innings.

Common sense didn’t prevail – fear did. Gardy, likely worried about a potential injury to Doumit hurting the team (Mauer was DH and  likely wouldn’t have been able to catch anyway with his lingering calf injury) decided to let Butera swing away in a key spot. Butera, predictably, softly grounded out to third and the Twins didn’t push across any extra runs.

Of course, Perkins and Burton combined to pitch two solid innings and the Twins 3 run lead proved to be more than enough to win – but the fact remains, this key situation in a tight ballgame was mismanaged. Is it nitpicking? Probably, but in an otherwise good game, Gradenhire’s momentary brain lapse is this game’s “ugly” moment.

Looking Forward:

Liam Hendriks takes to the mound tonight, looking to channel some of that AAA mojo into a good MLB start. Hendriks has the talent to be a good major league pitcher; we’ve seen it in AAA and in two early starts this season. Lately, however, Hendriks has been easy to hit and has been knocked from his starts early on. Hopefully tonight he’ll be able to keep the Twins in the game against Gavin Floyd and the White Sox.