Cliff Lee Topic Page
Mauer even better in June
Joe Mauer hit 11 home runs, batted .414 and had an on-base percentage of .500 for the month of May, which is nothing short of amazing. In his first game of the month of June, he managed to step it up a notch.
Mauer was 3-for-3 with a walk and hit his 12th home run of the season. He's now just 1 shy of his career high of 13 home runs in 2006. What's interesting is that all 3 of his hits came against left-handed pitching, which helps close the large gap in his platoon splits. Coming into the game Mauer was hitting .493 against RHP and .250 against LHP. The 3 hits bring the LHP average to .314.
Liriano struggles in opener
Liriano had his worst start of the season on Thursday night which ultimately led to a 4-6 loss in the series opener to Cleveland. The Twins have now lost two straight games in which Santana or Liriano started. Some of made the excuse that he struggled do to all the travel in the past few days. That's possible, but it's also possible that he just didn't have a good start. All pitchers struggle from time to time, especially 22 year olds.