What a heartbreaker.
After barely recording two outs while allowing six runs on five hits and walking three, Minnesota Twins struggling lefy Francisco Liriano was pulled in the first inning of Thursday afternoon's game against the Oakland Athletics.
And actually, one of the outs was an assist by outfielder Jason Kubel, who nailed Chris Denorfia after a greedy attempt at taking third from first on a base hit.
It's not like this is the first start Liriano has struggled in. Since his comeback from Tommy John surgery this season, he can't seem to locate the strikezone at all, throwing just 15 of 35 pitches for strikes today.
There had been some speculation on skipping the 24-year-old's next scheduled start to go with a four-man rotation -- considering the abundance of off-days the Twins have coming up -- but I really dislike that idea. With a passion. He needs to pitch and get more innings under his belt, and clearly, he's not ready for the big leagues yet. I believe his 11.32 ERA over 3 starts (10.1 IP) speaks for itself.
With Michael Cuddyer returning from the DL Friday, Twins brass must make the decision on who to send down to make room for Cuddy. If I had to make the call, it would be Liriano without question. Or Denard Span. Cause, yeah.
However, after all of that, I still have to be pumped about speedy Carlos Gomez's first homer of the season. Way to go, buddy.
[Star Tribune]
5 comments:
That was horrible. The entire game was awful.
Ohh Sooze...give him a few starts. But rarely do guys come back from that surgery and do well. It's just not likely going to work out for your Twins this year
Dan (BravesNuWorld)
But I did give him a few starts.. and, and look what happened! I guess, since the Twins are not going to win a Championship this season, it's not that big of a deal keeping him up in the big leagues. I just really don't think he's ready. He still has that nasty slider occasionally and a decent fastball, but there's a total lack of control and command that kind of concerns me.
/rant
/seriously this time.
Always sad to see outings like that--it's not an infinite ERA outing, but it's up there and he's too good a talent to let him flail about like a little brother straining uselessly against his churlish, bullying oaf of an older brother. Except in this instance, the older brother has a baseball bat and is connecting with it. I agree, Sooze, send him down, let him get his mechanics (which were terrible to begin with) in order, and let him arrive from the heavens in June much as one Purple Jesus did to bless Mini-Soda with his ethereal goodness.
sooze, i apologize. it's all my fault. i accidentally drafted him on my fantasy league. it's a curse. last year i had nicky on my roster, and look what it did to his batting average. i'll drop him forthwith for the cause.
Post a Comment