After making five appearances from the bullpen and directly following his worst relief outing, the Minnesota Twins have announced that lefty Francisco Liriano will be moving back to the starting rotation, according to beat writer Rhett Bollinger. He will start next Wednesday against the Oakland A's.
Liriano looked somewhat like the Liriano of old in his first relief appearance, striking out three in two innings while not allowing a hit. In Liriano's first four appearances, in fact, he struck out six in 4.2 innings pitched while giving up just two hits and no runs. In all, he struck out a total of nine batters in seven-plus relief innings.
Walks continued to be an issue for Liriano out of the bullpen, though, much like it has been an issue for him the past two seasons. He walked nearly nine batters per nine innings out of the pen and they came back to hurt him when he finally started allowing some hits in his last appearance on Friday night against the Tigers; he gave up four runs in just 2.2 innings.
At any rate, the Twins never viewed his move to the 'pen as a permanent one. Although he may not have fixed anything, the Twins are hoping it's enough of a wake up call for him to be serviceable in a struggling rotation.
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