Sean Henn Topic Page

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the tables on the Twins Wednesday night. One night after they lost 8-2, they beat the Twins by the same score. 5 of their 8 runs came by way of the homerun. For a team that entered the game tied for last in baseball in home runs (37), getting 3 in one night is an unusual accomplishment.

Francisco Liriano allowed 2 of the home runs and took his eighth loss of the season. However, there were some encouraging signs from the start. Liriano had allowed 34 walks in his 13 previous starts this season, which is above his career average. On Tuesday he allowed just 1 walk and didn't get deep into counts with as many hitters. In fact, he was able to get through 7 innings of pitching for just the 3rd time all season, and first time sine May 4th.

Monday night may have been Anthony Swarzak's last start for a while anyway, but his 4th inning meltdown against the Oakland Athletics probably sealed the deal. Glen Perkins is scheduled to pitch his second rehab start tonight and would be eligible to return to the team this weekend againt the Cubs.

In the 4th inning Swarzak couldn't get a ball over the plate. He walked the first two batters of the inning on 8 straight balls. Brendan Harris made a diving stop and threw out Matt Holliday at 3rd, which was a huge play at the time. Unfortunately Swarzak hit the next batter, Aaron Cunningham in the side of the helmet, knocking him out of the game. Swarzak allowed a double, retired a second batter and then walked another before Luis Ayala was called upon to relieve him.

If there were a way to put a positive spin on a 4-game sweep, I'd probably mention that 3 of the 4 games were lost by just 1 run and the other one was lost by 2 runs in walk-off fashion. Considering they're outspent by the Yankees $201 million to $65 million, the Twins put up a better fight than one would logically expect. It's fun to dream about how good just an extra $25 million well spent would make the Twins.

Monday's game seemed finished almost as soon as it got started. Although the Twins put a couple runs up right away in the first, Glen Perkins allowed 6 runs to the Yankees in the bottom of that inning before leaving with just 2 outs. R.A. Dickey did a marvelous job keeping the Yankees bats at bay as the Twins slowly pecked away at that lead. Dickey pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings.