Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Late night: Angels 4, Twins 0

Francisco Liriano is pulled in the sixth inning
Tuesday after 91 pitches.
Box score here

Game story here

The spin offered by Ron Gardenhire and Francisco Liriano is that Liriano wasn't bad.

My take is that he wasn't good — better than he was before his week of bullpen sessions, but that's not saying much. He still had a mediocre ball/strike ratio (40 balls, 51 strikes), threw first-pitch strikes to just 12 of his 25 hitters, walked three men in 5.1 innings, hit another, gave up a pair of homers ...

None of that suggests fastball command to me. That's what I need to see to be encouraged.

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Sean Burroughs was designated for assignment to make room for Drew Butera on the 25-man roster. Justin Morneau's wrist is inflamed and has fluid build-up, which doesn't sound good, but he's not going on the disabled list and may even be in the lineup today.

I was surprised Burroughs got the ax; I had expected one of the pitchers to go. But I was rather surprised Burroughs made the team to begin with, and I never did see what his role was. He never really looked good enough at the plate to threaten Danny Valencia's playing time.


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