Know Thine Enemy: Let's Go Tribe
With the Twins dropping the first two games of this series, it falls to Francisco Liriano to rescue one game. The Indians are hot, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't knock them off at least once.
Liriano is coming off of a strong performance, and no doubt he's dying to take the hill and be the guy who stops this from becoming a three-game losing streak. There are weaknesses up and down this lineup, so as long as he stays focused and pitches at a controlled pace he should put his offense in a position to help him pick up a win.
Westbrook is one of the starters who is apparently "on the block", even though I'm not too high on the guy myself. If he looks good today, expect to see his name pop up everywhere tomorrow (if not tonight).
Where he's good, he's good: he can get on a roll and spit out a number of 1-2-3 innings, he possesses great off-speed stuff, and he won't relent just because he gets behind in the count. But he also has a lot of weaknesses, getting into too many 3-ball counts and failing to retire the first batter of the inning too often.
Overall he's an alright pitcher. He can eat innings and has a good slider this year. But he doesn't dominate in any real way, so if he's not completely on his game I'm hoping the bats can come to life.
Below is the lineup. It's certainly a good 1-7 still...but it just doesn't have the same roar when both Joe and Justin aren't in.