OT: Liriano pitches a no-hitter
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Francisco Liriano got a no-no against the White Sox today throwing 123 pitches. As much as I hate the Twinkies, I gotta give the guy props.
In other news, the Tigers ended their 7 game losing streak and beat the Yankees! Not a bad team to break a slump against.
what a fluky no hitter.
Not as fluky as Edwin Jackson's 8-walk, 150 pitch no-no last year against Tampa Bay. Incidentally, Jackson was the losing pitcher in the game tonight.
Congrats to Liriano, although I still hope the Twins and White Sox both stay at the bottom of the division, and I hope the Tigers can put together enough to win it when Cleveland and Kansas City come back down to earth.
I was shocked at how well Scott Sizemore batted in tonight's Tigers game. I absolutely loathed him after his performance last year, but he had 3 hits and an RBI tonight. I guess it's not too surprising seeing as he was batting .408 in the minors.....but still. Is it just a flukey game or do you guys think he's for real this year?
is always a bad idea.
Great point. Thanks for bringing me back down to Earth. My excitement got the best of me. Just glad the Tigers finally got a win.
Plate work quite nice, the E in the 7th or 8th wasn't so good...but happy to see him back up north.
Hopefully he's coming to form & becomes a regular with Rhymes. I think it's a fluke...I mean didn't two Tigers' starters no hit the CWS lineup through 5 or 6 innings during the sweep? Not to take away from the no-hitter at all.
I mean, he was a rookie coming off of off-season surgery. Were you equally down on Alex Avila for struggling in his rookie year?
he's walking far more batters than he ever has before, and was striking out far fewer even before tonight, when he only struck out two.
Obviously a no-no is a cool accomplishment, but the Twins need his walk and k rates to regress to his usual averages more than they need him to throw a no hitter in one game.
He's lost some velocity on his fastball this year also. It's closer to his immediate post-TJ surgery number.
It seems to me that allowing zero runs is more important than walk and strikeout numbers.
Not that I expect him to throw a no-hitter every game. But pointing out his walk/strikeout ratio after a shutout seems like odd timing...
The rotten walk/strikeout numbers including last night are a better indicator that he is still pitching poorly, what with the whole "pitchers don't control the ball in play" thing. He was just fortunate enough to pitch against the current Sox team, since they have at least 7 out of 9 guys in the lineup in hitting slumps and have made damn near every starter they've seen for at least the last three weeks look like an All-Star.
Well, it's a little more complicated than that.
Gardenhire had a "come to Jesus" meeting with Liriano last Friday, where he told Francisco that his release point is all over the place, and with Kevin Slowey coming off the disabled list, he had last night's start to impress the team, or he was going to the bullpen or the minors.
Liriano's major problem is that the Twins' pitching philosophy is pitch to contact, and Liriano prefers to paint the corners and use his slider / changeup for strikeouts. Obviously, his attempts are not working this year and he's clashed with the manager.
and still walked 6? He only managed a few swing-and-misses and ended w/ 2 K's. He was not good. The Sox were far worse.
has essentially no predictive value. K and BB rates have a ton.
...I just think it's odd/funny when people essentially say, "He just did one of the most awesome things in sports, but he needs to get his shit together."
his defense had to do all the work and Liriano gets all the credit.
pitched especially not given the sample involved. BABIP and all that. And like YDD says, he's incredibly fortunate to be facing the White Sox he faced. There are probably 3 hitters at any one time who have their heads on straight, rocking a decent approach.
Well done Liriano, and I hope that you have a 8.19 ERA at the end of the year.
Congrats to him. It is a great accomplishment. However, it may say more about how bad of an offense the White Sox have had earlier in the year than is says about Liriano. He came into the game 1 and 4 with an ERA over 9. Pretty bad on the part of the Sox.
The White Sox offense definitely contributed to the no-no. They have been awful this year. Liriano is a solid pitcher, but he has not been on his A-game this year.
The longer this plays out, especially given the Tiger's weekend debacle, I'm not so sure Cleveland or KC are going to come back down to Earth. They are both getting solid pitching, and Cleveland especially has gotten contributions from up and down the lineup. Choo, Santana and A. Cabrera aren't even hitting all that well. Imagine if they were putting up their expected numbers?
If Cleveland can stay healthy, they might run away with the division.
Seeing Chicago and Minnesota continue to falter makes it all the more disappointing that Detroit is joining them. I really can't foresee Kansas City or Cleveland continue to dominate the division, but once we heat up it's likely the Twins and Sox will begin to also. Especially Chicago....there's no way all those bats are going to stay cold for too long. Pierre, Rios, Dunn and Beckham are all playing the worst baseball of their careers right now and only Beckham doesn't have a long track record of success.
thanks for reminding me. Shin-Soo Choo is a player that I cannot explain my dislike for, other than the fact that he plays for a team that I grew up hating. He always seems to do something that makes me want to throw something at my TV. Your comment also reminded me that the Tribe successfuly swept my Tigers without Hafner.
Well, maybe the Tigers will at least keep me semi-inerested until fall camp rolls around.
nice picture haha
I was there. The game seemed to drag on for hours and we were actually ready to leave at the end of the 5th but with the no hitter going we stayed for the 6th, then the 7th and so on. Glad we stayed.
all the strong dislike ( I won't say hate) for a well-run organization that builds most of its talent from within and keeps itself free from the arrogant jerks that populate many teams' rosters - I guess I'll have to chalk it to divisional rivalry and recent history. As a Twins fan, I have always had a higher degree of loathing for the White Sox, with their quasi-Yankee pretentions and huge-mouthed manager.
With all that said, the Twins are in a deep hole, and I doubt that a rather "accidental" no-hitter will go very far in turning around a dismal beginning to the season.
it up to division rivlary and recent history, because that is literally the only reason Tigers fans hate the Twins. Were we in seperate divisions, there would be zero hate level there.