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Know Thine Enemy: Lone Star Ball
He's strike you out. He won't walk you if his life depends on it. He allows less than a hit per inning. His fastball is one of the most effective in the game, the changeup is pretty damn good, and his breaking balls aren't too bad either. He'll attack with first-pitch strikes. Cliff Lee is the one guy the Twins didn't want to face on the night they need to avoid a sweep, but here they are.
Lee will dance all around the zone--inside, outside, missing off the corners both high and low. He relies on his fastball quite heavily, going to it 73% of the time against righties and 80% versus lefties. But he throws darts and changes speeds, and he can throw it with movement. Against right-handers he'll throw the changeup quite regularly, while barely at all against left-handed hitters. The breaking balls are consistent either way.
See the ball. Hit the ball. Hope it finds grass.
He's had a couple of un-Liriano-esque starts in a row now, and the Twins gave him a few extra days off to rest his arm. Liriano's thrown more than a full-time starters allowance of innings over the past year, including his play over the winter, which means his arm hasn't had any sustained rest since winter 2008 - 2009. Hell, the 151.1 innings he's thrown in 2010 constitute a career high in the Majors.
We'll see how he fares tonight. Hopefully the extra couple of days did him some good, and he's able to come out and step up to the challenge that is Cy Lee. His fastball-slider combination can be just as electric than Lee's best, if not moreso, but he needs to control them and he needs to be efficient.