Micheal Cuddyer Topic Page

Liriano got off to an incredible start on Sunday in Cleveland. Through 4 innings he had struck out 9 batters and had a 3-0 lead. He looked unstoppable. However, he ran into some trouble in the fifth and allowed 1 run to score and threw a lot of pitches while working out of the inning. The Twins went to the bullpen in the sixth.

The series opener in Cleveland was a game dominated by offense and it clocked it at 3 hours and 43 minutes in length. The Twins scored 14 runs on 18 hits and 6 walks and were also helped out by a fourth inning Aaron Boone error that allowed the Twins to compile 8 runs in the one inning alone. The Twins picked a good night to put up some offense, because Carlos Silva wasn't very good.

The Twins extended their season long win streak to 10 games with a Sunday victory over the Brewers. The win also completed the Twins third straight sweep. Francisco Liriano got off to a less than perfect start. He hit Rickie Weeks with a pitch and gave up a single to Jeff Cirillo. While pitching to Corey Hart, he caught a spike in the mound and tripped before delivering a pitch. The balk moved runners to second and third with no outs. Two strikeouts and a groundout got him out of the jam with no runs given up. Liriano was near perfect for the rest of the game—giving up just 3 hits and a walk through 8 shutout innings. Liriano also recorded a career high 12 strikeouts.

The Twins completed their fourth series sweep in the month of June. They've swept half their series in the month and won 6 out of 8 after losing the first two series in the month. The Tigers also completed a sweep Wednesday—against the Astros, so once again the Twins will gain no ground on them. Interleague play can surely result in some bizarre things, and when the leagues are so obviously unbalanced the results are even more strange. The Twins have 9 games remaining until the All-Star break and then they'll get back into some games against their division rivals in late July.