Francisco Liriano did not pitch his best, getting pulled after just 4 innings of work. He gave up 10 hits, 4 runs (all earned). FSN North reporter Ron “Coomdog” Coomer says he thinks there is something wrong with Liriano still. EDIT: Francisco Liriano, Minnesota’s rookie All-Star, is out indefinitely with what appears to be a left elbow injury. This comes from the Star Tribune.
Pat Neshek came in in the 5th to pitch 2 solid innings, giving up 0 hits and striking out 3. I think he should’ve went in for the 7th.
As it turns out, that probably would’ve been best; Jesse Crain came in to pitch it and had a really tough outing. He walked 4 (one intentional; he had 10 non-intentional walks coming into the game), gave up just 2 hits, but allowed 4 earned runs. He did not strike anybody out.
Earlier in the year I said that I thought Willie Eyre would be a fine reliever; boy was I wrong. His ERA is still above 7, he gives up more than 1 hit an inning, and has 15 walks but just 17 strikeouts this season.
To things not relating to yesterday’s game:
I will share my views on the Twins’ stadium plan in tomorrow’s post.
In the month of July, according to stats, the Twins’ lineup looked like this (6th and 7th spot determined by most at bats in the month):
Luis Castillo – 102 AB, 16 R, 30 H, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .294 AVG
Nick Punto – 99 AB, 19 R, 37 H, 0 HR, 15 RBI, .377 AVG
Joe Mauer – 82 AB, 12 R, 24 H, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .293 AVG
Michael Cuddyer – 105 AB, 18 R, 28 H, 3 HR, 21 RBI, .267 AVG
Justin Morneau – 100 AB, 22 R, 41 H, 8 HR, 23 RBI, .410 AVG
Rondell White – 51 AB, 9 R, 19 H, 3 HR, 10 RBI, .373 AVG
Jason Kubel – 52 AB, 3 R, 12 H, 2 HR, 6 RBI, .231 AVG
Jason Tyner – 67 AB, 12 R, 22 H, 0 HR, 7 RBI, .328 AVG
Jason Bartlett – 83 AB, 15 R, 27 H, 1 HR, 10 RBI, .325 AVG
Also, I want to try something new and different. (Hopefully) from here until the end of the season, I will post a trivia question relating to the Twins each Tuesday post (talking about Monday’s game). Readers have one guess at it, and can guess by commenting here and stating what your guess is. Guessing ends on Friday night at 11:59 PM central time. If someone gets it right, they get to make a guest post about Sunday’s afternoon game (all the games are in the afternoon). To do this, just write about the game like I do and then you can email me what you have and I’ll post it here for everyone to read. I will not make a post, I won’t write in anything that day (unless nobody gets the question right). All questions will be about the Twins in some way, and some may be trick questions. And feel free to use Google, books, whatever. One last thing, if more than one person gets it right, the winner will be whoever posted the answer first. So, the first ever Minnesota Twins Talk trivia question is: In Sunday’s 11-5 win over the Royals, the Twins had 6 players record 3 or more hits; when was the last time this was done by a Twins team? Good luck!
Minnesota Twins talk 
Great idea Frymaster. You’ve already got me stumped. I guess I should have listened to Bert and Dick. Maybe it was even the Aflac question. Although, I would guess you would be a little mare clever than that!