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Indians-Twins Preview

Apr 21, 2010 - 4:53 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Cleveland (6-6) at Minnesota (9-4), 8:10 p.m. EDT

Francisco Liriano said his last start was the best he's felt since his remarkable rookie season. If those feelings continue, that could spell trouble for the Cleveland Indians.

Liriano takes the mound for the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night, when the club tries to win its fifth straight series to begin the season.

After winning the fifth starter's spot in spring training, Liriano (1-0, 2.08 ERA) has gone at least six innings in both his outings, yielding four hits in each while holding opponents to a .178 batting average. Making his first start at Target Field on Thursday, the left-hander had a season-high eight strikeouts in seven innings of an 8-0 victory over Boston.

"I haven't felt like that since probably '06," said Liriano, who went 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA as a rookie before being sidelined all of 2007 following Tommy John surgery.

Liriano is 2-3 with a 5.02 ERA in six career starts against Cleveland, but he'll look to even that mark and give the Twins (10-4) their third consecutive series win since opening their new ballpark on April 12. Behind Kevin Slowey's eight innings of five-hit ball, Minnesota won Tuesday's series opener 5-1 to snap the Indians' four-game winning streak.

Reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer had his 18-game hitting streak against Cleveland (6-7) snapped, but the three-time batting champ could be in line to start a new one against David Huff (1-1, 1.80), who gets the start for the Indians.

Mauer is 6 for 12 with a double, homer and four RBIs against the left-hander.

Huff will try to build off his first career complete game. In Thursday's 3-2 victory over Texas, Huff struck out four and allowed four hits.

"I looked up in the middle of the eighth and saw my pitch count was down," said Huff, who threw 71 of his 104 pitches for strikes. "I knew if I kept making the right pitches and kept attacking those guys, I was going to possibly finish the game. I'm going out for every inning until they tell me I'm not."

Huff is 2-2 with a 5.82 ERA in four career starts against Minnesota, winning each of his last two appearances.

A better effort from the Indians' bats could help him continue that run. Cleveland had five hits Tuesday, and is among the AL's worst with a .214 batting average and 3.5 runs per game.

"Our offense has a ways to go," said manager Manny Acta, whose team is batting .198 while losing four straight on the road. "We weren't even close in the game to get that timely hit."

Reigning AL player of the week Shin-Soo Choo, who hit the game-winning, three-run homer in Huff's complete-game win, had his seven-game hitting streak snapped Tuesday, going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.

After coming off the 15-day disabled list earlier Tuesday, Russell Branyan started at first base and went 1 for 3 to begin his second stint with the Indians. Branyan hit 45 homers and drove in 115 runs for Cleveland from 1998-2002.