Monday, June 05, 2006

Twins need Liriano to pick them up; rematch of the Phenoms

An early HR from Joe Mauer (the top catcher in the AL) aside, the Twins offense was stagnant again, and Carlos Silva struggled early, leading to a 5-1 Twins loss, as they drop 3 of 4 to Oakland.

After an off day on Monday, they'll head out to Seattle, where Francisco Liriano will take the mound for the Twins trying to get them back into the winning column, which has been no easy task for the Twins this year on the road.

Liriano's pitching opponent will be "King" Felix Hernandez, which will be a rematch of their 5/26 duel in Minnesota, which the Twins won 3-1. In that game, Liriano pitched 5 scoreless innings (striking out 6), while Hernandez gave up 3 runs in 7 innings.

In Game 2 of the series, we'll likely see a rematch of the 5/27 meeting between these clubs, when Boof Bonser and the Twins beat Jamie Moyer and the Mariners 9-5.

As good as Liriano has been, it's not going to matter how well he pitches if the Twins average 1 run per game, which they did in the Oakland series. Hopefully the Missing Twins will return.

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