The Twins seemed on their way to handing the Tigers their 11th loss of the young season before the Tigers broke out for 11 runs in their final three innings at the plate to defeat the Twins by a score of 11-9.

The Twins capitalized early on a second inning error by Ivan Rodriguez. He dropped a foul ball that would have been the third out of the inning. Brendan Harris singled in Delmon Young and then Mike Lamb drove him in with another single. Hits from Young and Jason Kubel helped the Twins to three additional runs in the sixth.

With two outs in the sixth inning, Gary Sheffield started off the the Tiger rally with a single. Four more hits that inning led to the end of Nick Blackburn’s night and brought the Tigers to within a run of the lead. The Twins wiped out those runs in the seventh with 4 runs of their own, but 7 runs in the next two innings brought the Tigers to victory. The eighth inning featured 2 triples, 2 doubles and 2 singles.

The Tigers’ offense looked much more as expected than they have all season. They had been shut out 4 times this year and were coming off two straight scoreless games against the White Sox.

Game Notes

• Denard Span gave Pudge Rodriguez a home run in the seventh inning when he had ball pop out of his glove and go over the fence. Span did have 2 hits and a walk at the plate and made 2 nice defensive plays in RF too.
• Matt Guerrier was roughed up for 4 runs in 1 1/3 ininngs.
• Pat Neshek was charged with 2 runs in the 8th inning.
• Joe Mauer remained hitless, but did draw 3 walks and scored 2 runs.
• Carlos Gomez stole his 6th base of the season.’
• Delmon Young had 3 hits, including a double, and drove in 2 runs.
• Kubel was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI as the DH.

Looking Ahead

Scott Baker will try to earn the Twins a split of the quick 2-game series against lefty Nate Robertson who has struggled in his first 2 starts of the season. The Twins then return home to host the Tampa Bay Rays for a two game series on Wednesday and Thursday before seeing the Cleveland Indians for the first time this year in a weekend dome series.

Trip to Kansas City

I mentioned last week that I was going to Kansas City for Saturday night’s game. It was a fun trip, and good to finally see Kauffman stadium. It’s definitely a beautiful stadium, however the bitter cold and wind didn’t exactly get me excited for outdoor baseball. I’m sure a May or June visit would’ve had me thinking exactly the opposite though. Kauffman is currently in the early stages of a $250 million renovation to update the 35 year old stadium. The first part of that renovation, a gigantic video screen in CF, was really quite impressive. The scoreboard can show just about every bit of information a fan would want to see at one time.

Sorry for the lack of updates while I was away. I’ll be getting back into the regular routine this week. I was able to listen to all of Francisco Liriano’s outing on the radio before the station faded away on my drive home somwhere near Des Moines. The poor results didn’t come as much of a surprise to me. Report had been that he’s struggling with his command. Additionally, when you lose 5-10 mph on your slider, you’re simply not going to be the same pitcher.

It’s great to see Liriano back on the mound, but we have to keep in mind that the long road involved in a Tommy John comeback still has a way to go. It may be next season before Liriano is consistently effective again. He may never be the same pitcher he was in 2006. AaronGleeman.com has the best commentary on the Liriano outing, if you haven’t seen it yet.