The Twins rotation for opening day became clear after Francisco Liriano’s last spring start on Friday and Scott Baker’s minor league start on Sunday.  Ron Gardenhire announced Francisco Liriano was optioned to the Twins Class A Fort Myers to start the season. Francisco pitched well on Friday throwing 73 pitches in 5 innings with 7 strikeouts, 2 base on balls, and 3 hits, one being a homerun. Kelly Thesier wrote in her article that Francisco is expected to make one start in Class A, make a start for Class AAA Rochester, then maybe join the Twins. Gardy wants to get Liriano up to throwing around 100 pitches. It will be interesting to see if Francisco does join the Twins after two starts or if the Twins will wait to see which of the starters isn’t making the grade over the month of April.

Scott Baker pitched well enough in his minor league start on Sunday and will jump on the end of the Twins rotation and start the series against Kansas City. In his start Baker threw 71 pitches over 6 innings giving up 6 hits, no walks with 3 strikeouts. Baker should be able to get more strength back after his extended bout with the flu by the time he makes his first start,

The Twins will start the season with Livan Hernandez, Boof Bonser, Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker.

Tags: francisco liriano, scott baker

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am and is filed under pitchers, players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.