I Dislike Your Favorite Team

You should.  It was just a couple of weeks ago, or so.  We were being cautiously optimistic; optimistic because Liriano pitched his ass off against the Red Sox.  Cautious, because he looked good at times as late as August last year, before collapsing and being sat down down the stretch.

But a couple of games can tell the tale, especially if you look past the obvious good indicators.

And let's be clear--Liriano hasn't had a three game stretch like the one he just had since he was the miracle worker in the latter stages of the 2006 season.  He started off with a ND in his first game, with 6 IP.  Since then he's gone 7 innings, 8 innings, 8 innings.  His ERA has dropped from 4.50 to 2.08 to 1.29 to 0.93.

But to me the important stats aren't just the innings pitched--hell, maybe Liriano was facing some free swingers, who generated their own outs.

On April 21, Liriano got to and finished the 8th inning against the Cleveland Insulting Native American Caricatures--he threw 102 pitches, 70 of them were strikes.  Of the 30 hitters he faced, he generated 24 outs and 19 were either strike outs or ground ball outs.  That's a great stat from a slider pitcher.

But he did better on the 27th against the Tigers--he got to and finished the 8th inning again, threw 112 pitches, 74 for strikes.  He faced two less batters, and of those 28, he struck 10, and induced 9 ground balls.

Liriano is officially back.  You know how I know?  Media sources outside the Twin Cities have taken notice that he's got a 26 inning scoreless streak going.