An offense that was missing Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit continued to be punchless as the Twins went 6 2/3 innings before they recorded their first hit against Francisco Liriano, and Samuel Deduno's control problems arose again as the Twins lost to the White Sox 5-3 on Saturday afternoon.
We all know that Liriano was a wild card entering every start. You never knew if you'd get a dominant performance or a stinker where he couldn't locate his fastball. Today's game featured the vintage Liriano, as he kept the Twins out of the hit column until a 2-out, 2-run homer by Trevor Plouffe in the bottom of the 7th inning. That would be one of only two hits the Twins could muster, with the 2nd coming in the bottom of the 9th from pinch-hitter Denard Span.
The Sox offense went with the same game plan as yesterday, where they nipped and bit at the Twins here and there to score their 5 runs. They took an early 1-0 lead when Pedro Florimon bobbled Paul Konerko's sure double-play grounder, allowing Adam Dunn to score from 3rd. They added two more on a Konerko 2-run homer in the 3rd, and then single runs scored in the 4th and 9th on RBI singles by Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez.
Where Francisco Liriano had no trouble controlling his pitches, Samuel Deduno was the opposite. He struggled all day with his control, walking 5 White Sox in only 4 innings. He did tally 6 strikeouts, but Gardy had seen enough and chose to turn to Brian Duensing to start the 5th inning. Duensing pitched nearly as long as Deduno, going 3 1/3 IP without giving up a single run, before being replaced by Casey Fien in the 8th inning after Duensing allowed a double to Adam Dunn and a walk to Paul Konerko. However, Fien and Tyler Robertson retired the next two hitters, stranding Duensing's baserunners.
Studs
Trevor Plouffe (1 for 4, 2-run HR), Brian Duensing (3 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K)
Duds
Samuel Deduno (4 IP, 4 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 6 K), basically every other offensive player
Notes
With Mauer and Doumit hurting, catcher Chris Herrmann was called up from Double-A New Britain. Fellow catcher Rene Rivera is upset that the Twins broke a promise.