Francisco Liriano impresses fans with nine knockouts in ousting Baltimore Orioles
The Spring Training at Fort Myers, Florida has been very fruitful for the Minnesota Twins, providing the club with a lot good news on the front, and bringing in Francisco Liriano as the new man to rekindle the hope of an American League Central title this
season. The player was on for the club in a Grapefruit League encounter against the Baltimore Orioles. Much to the satisfaction of the crowd, Liriano punched up the highest strikeout count of Spring Training to end his tenure of three innings on the mound.
The ace pitcher put the Twins in the position to win as the club managed to smudge off the contest with a 5 – 2 victory in Hammond Stadium. The ace ball thrower pitched 76 times in his outing, and while the exhibition took long, he availed strikes in most
of his deliveries. The hurler conceded just a run in his game.
"It was a little bit out there," manager Ron Gardenhire said of Liriano's feature on the field. "But he got his work in and got to 70-plus pitches to build his arm strength up. But we were just hoping he'd get to five or six innings, not three. There were
a lot of punch-outs, but I'm sure Frankie was a little bit disappointed by the way he threw the ball tonight."
For the Orioles’ Brain Matusz, the night could not have been any worse. The hurler from the American League East region allowed four runs off five hits. On top of that, he managed to give away three weeks on the mound.
"I just didn't have it today," Matusz said. "I'm frustrated, but at the same time, it's nice to get it out of the way in Spring Training."
Denard Span was able to register the first run on the night. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer were all in the mix to lead the club to the victory. The Twins look set to lead the season off with a good squad. With Michael Cuddyer on the injury
list, at the moment, chances for a division title look good.
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