Francisco Liriano’s only troubles came in the 2nd inning when he walked Ian Snell, the Pittsburgh pitcher, and then gave up a 2-run homer to Jack Wilson. Liriano was brilliant through 7 innings as he struck out a career hight 11 batters and became the first Twins pitcher that isn’t Johan Sanana to strike out double digits since Eric Milton in 2002.

It looked like Ian Snell might shut down the Twins until the the offense finally got to him the third time through the lineup in the top of the 7th. Nick Punto led off with a walk and Mauer singled. Michael Cuddyer drove in the first Twins run of the game with a double. A Justin Morneau sac fly scored Mauer and moved Cuddyer to third. Torii Hunter put the Twins in the lead with a single.

The Twins added one more run in the ninth on a bases loaded walk to Rondell White. They ended up not needing the run thanks to the strong bullpen of Juan Rincon and Joe Nathan. Rincon pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning and even after throwing 42 pitchines in Thursday night’s game against Boston Gardenhire wasn’t about to leave Nathan on the bench in a rare save situation. Nathan needed just 7 pitches to get 3 outs in the 9th for his 9th save on the season.

Game Notes

• Ruben Sierra was recalled a week earlier than expected to fill the roster spot of the traded Juan Castro. He was not used in the game.
• Joe Mauer pushed his average back above .380, to .381, with a 2-4 night.
• Cuddyer and Hunter were both 2-4 with big 7th inning RBIs.
• Liriano upped his record to 6-1 on the season. He now has 4 straight quality starts and has 67 strikeouts on the season in just 58.1 innings.
• Jason Bartlett was 1-3 and has now has hits in 3 straight games since being called up on Wednesday.
• The Twins have won 5 straight games and 7 of their last 8. Unfortunately Chicago and Detroit keep winning, so they haven’t really gained any ground. The Twins did move into sole posession of 3rd place in the Central division with Cleveland losing to Milwaukee.

Looking Ahead

Boof Bonser will get his first start in over a week after being skipped in his last turn in the rotation. The rest of the rotation has looked much improved over the past week, and it’ll be fun to see Bonser try to keep the momentum going.