Tigers tame Liriano
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 8, 2006
DETROIT (AP) &045; Francisco Liriano still isn’t healthy and he sure didn’t look it against the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers roughed up Liriano in a 9-3 rout Monday, and after the game, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire announced that Liriano is still suffering from soreness in his left forearm.
&8220;It’s a muscular problem &045; as the game was going on, he started to feel it,&8221; Gardenhire said.
&8220;We had him checked out before, and everything was fine, but we’ll have him checked out again. It’s muscles, not his elbow.&8221;
After facing the Tigers on July 28, Liriano (12-3) missed his next start because of inflammation in the forearm. The rest did not seem to help, as he gave up four runs and a season-high 10 hits in just four innings. He struck out five.
&8220;It started bothering me in the second inning,&8221; said Liriano, who was taken out after four innings. &8220;It really bothered me. I couldn’t throw fastball, changeup, slider or anything.&8221;
Liriano has a 7.63 ERA against Detroit this season, more than five times higher than his ERA (1.39) against the rest of the majors, but Tigers manager Jim Leyland doesn’t think his team has found any answers.
&8220;That young man has three strikeout pitches, when most guys are lucky to have one,&8221; he said. &8220;Trust me, we aren’t comfortable against him. When you throw 97, with that slider and that
changeup, he’ll be in the league for a long time, and no one will ever be comfortable against him.&8221;
Zach Miner (7-2) won the duel of rookie starters, allowing three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.
&8220;Against that guy, you know you have to be on,&8221; he said. &8220;He’s not going to give you many chances.&8221;
Marcus Thames hit a long homer and Magglio Ordonez drove in a pair of runs for the Tigers, who have won four straight and six of seven. Detroit (76-36) is now a season-best 40 games over .500.
&8220;We knew before the season that we could win some games,&8221; Curtis Granderson said. &8220;We didn’t expect this.&8221;
The Twins had their four-game winning streak snapped and now trail Detroit by 10 1/2 games in the AL Central.
&8220;Every time you make a mistake against that team, they make you pay for it,&8221; Gardenhire said.
Liriano struck out batters with a runner on third to escape each of the first two innings, but the Tigers got two runs in the third and two more in the fourth.
Vance Wilson led off the third with a double, took third on a groundout and scored on Ivan Rodriguez’s two-out single. Ordonez followed with a double to make it 2-0.
The Twins got a run back in the top of the fourth on an RBI double by Justin Morneau, but Liriano continued to struggle.