New Place for Blame: Mother Nature

Rain ruined what started to be a great start for the outstanding phenom Fransisco Liriano. Here's the pre-storm stats: 2 IP 0 hits 4 Ks. In fact, Liriano struck out four straight Tigers before the short rain delay. Follow the rain delay, here's the post-storm stats: 3 IP 2 hits 1 HR 1 BB 2 Ks. I blame him sitting on the bench. For a brief time, he looked on fire. And he was. Since Liriano gave up a homer to his first major league hitter, he went (pre-storm) four innings with no hits and an outstanding 9 strikeouts. Total now, he has given up only three hits in seven innings with 11 Ks. So far so good. Like Baker, he looked strong in his first start, not crumbling under pressure and looking very dominate against major league hitters. A good sign of great things to come for this 21-year old flamethrower. The next best thing will be a trade of Kyle Lohse and JC Romero (its been coming) to open up things for this young man, and Baker and Bowyer as well.

Now, past the argument of the rain as the main enemy in this loss, there is Juan Rincon and the usually inept Twins offense. Joe Mays did an ok job, giving up four hits in two innings of relief, keeping the game from getting any worse. After, the Twins finally managed a run in the eigth off of Michael Cuddyer RBI single. The other run came earlier in the game against former Twins farmhand Sean Douglass (who has a terrible ERA and can't get anyone but you guessed it, Twins hitters) was a Luis Rodriguez RBI single following a Justin Morneau double.

But, even when we tied it, the usual came true. Our pitching couldn't hold up. Juan Rincon loaded the bases in the bottom of the eigth and gave up a two-run single to Craig Monroe. And, of course, they couldn't score anymore runs against the god-awful Tigers pitching staff. Nope, sorry guys, you scored all your remaining runs in last night's game. Rodriguez was the only hitter with two hits and only Joe Mauer managed a decent day, going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run scored.

Tommorow's a day off and it feels like more time to discuss 2006 because we just failed to sweep the Tigers with all the cards on our side.