After having come off an atrocious season in which he went 5-13 and was later moved to the bullpen, Francisco Liriano seems to be back. In fact not only does he seem to be back but he is arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now. After his last start against Detroit on Tuesday night, Cisco is 3-0 (4 games) and has an ERA of .93. All three of his last starts have been shutouts. He has been dealing and reminds us all of the kid we saw in 2006 who went 12-3 in his rookie MLB season. After being plagued by injuries and having Tommy John surgery some of us thought he would never be back to his old self. I was one of those people and like many I thought that he would replace Joe Nathan as closer for the season because it just didn't seem like he still had it in him to pitch more than six innings. But boy was I wrong, in his last three starts Liriano has gone 7 innings, 8 innings and then 8 again. He has been doing a fantastic job in mixing up his pitches between the fastball and the slider. Francisco has also proved that he does not need much run support, like Tuesday night in the 2-0 win. He will go out there and do his thing with a remarkable calmness (if only Baker could have that calmness!) regardless of the circumstances. He has 27 strikeouts and just 10 walks and though it may still be early I think we can now once again after four years call him The Franchise.
His next start, against Cleveland on Sunday. Go Cisco.
NV
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