Franky's Back! Twins Win!

The Twins clobbered the Cleveland Indians today, pounding out twenty hits en route to an 8-3 victory this afternoon. Although his three runs raised his ERA to 1.50, Fransisco "Franchiso" Liriano pitched seven strong innings, striking out 9, to get the W.

After sitting out the 2007 season with Tommy Johns surgery and a disappointing years in 2008 and 2009 which saw him splitting time between the majors and AAA, Frankie has returned to the form that made him a contender for the 2006 Cy Young and rookie of the year.

Liriano's high-90s fastball and devastating slider make him the only real power pitcher in the Twins' rotation. He has been the surprise of the Twins starters as Opening Day Starter Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn, both sinkerballers, have struggled to keep the ball low at times and have let a lot of pitches end up in the left field bleachers.

Although he shows no signs of waring down, Liriano has never opened thirty games a season. If the Twins are to make it past the first round of the playoffs, they will need Liriano to continue his dominance throughout the summer and down the stretch.

An interesting note of Twins trivia, many of you may know this, Franchiso came to the Twins as a minor-leaguer from the Giants as well as all-world closer Joe Nathan and erstwhile starter Boof Bonser in exchange for half of a season of A.J. Pierzinski's catching and hitting services. This is just part of the Twins' long history of stealing through trades. See generally the demise of Chuck Knoblauch vs. Eric Milton/Christian Guzman or Carlos Gomez vs. J.J. Hardy.