Sunday, July 09, 2006

This man is not an American League All-Star

Another start, another dominating performance for Francisco Liriano. This time, it comes in the best hitter's park in the American League, with Liriano dishing out 7 sterling innings, stirking out 8, and lowering his ERA to 1.83. With the win, he is now 10-1, becoming one of just 11 pitchers in the American League with double-digit wins, even though he hasn't been starting all year. As usual, let's go over some numbers:

AL ERA
1. Francisco Liriano - 1.83
2. Johan Santana - 2.76

3. John Lackey - 2.88
4. Justin Verlander - 3.01
5. Roy Halladay - 3.02

AL K/9
1. Francisco Liriano - 10.39
2. Scott Kazmir - 9.73
3. Johan Santana - 9.51
4. Felix Hernandez - 8.51
5. Ted Lilly - 8.41

AL WHIP
1. Francisco Liriano - 0.97
2. Johan Santana - 0.99
3. John Lackey - 1.02
4. Mike Mussina - 1.04
5. Roy Halladay - 1.05

Not too shabby.

Offensively, it wasn't a great day for the Twins, but they did pound out 14 hits. One of them was a solo HR by Torii Hunter, his 14th of the year. Jason Bartlett and Shannon Stewart got the rest of the RBI in the 4-0 victory.

In the rest of the division, the Sox lost again to Boston, putting Minnesota 8 games behind them for the wildcard. However, it appears the Tigers may never lose. They beat Seattle again, leaving the Twins still 11 games behind them at this point.

On the hill Sunday for the Twins will be Johan Cytana pitching against the always dangerous John Koronka! The Twins will look to head into the break into a high note, and maybe cut the lead down to 10.

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