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Liriano, Twins aim for sweep of Rays

Jul 6, 2011 - 2:44 PM (Sports Network) - Francisco Liriano tries to pitch the Minnesota Twins to a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon at Target Field.

Entering this series the Twins had lost six of their seven meetings with the Rays this season. Tampa had also won five straight and six of seven in Minnesota.

The Twins, though, have turned the tables this week. After posting a 7-0 win in Monday's opener, Minnesota emerged again on Tuesday, 3-2.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire again called on Matt Capps to finish off the game, but the embattled closer gave up a solo home run to B.J. Upton, then allowed two more base runners before he was replaced by Glen Perkins, who retired Johnny Damon to end the game.

Scott Baker's (7-5) victory didn't come without a cost, as he left the game after five innings with a mild right elbow strain. He scattered three hits with three strikeouts and one walk in the team's third straight victory.

"In my opinion no," said Baker when asked if the injury was serious. "I'll just continue to pitch with it. It was just a little more discomfort then I would have liked to continue to pitch with. It is just a precautionary thing, obviously we will re-evaluate it tomorrow."

The Twins have gone 6-2 on their current homestand and have won 21 of their last 30 games and 11 of their last 13 at home.

James Shields (8-6), fresh off his inclusion on the American League All-Star team, gave up three runs -- two earned -- on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks over six frames to take the loss. Ben Zobrist was 3-for-4 with a run scored in Tampa Bay's second straight defeat.

"We just need that timely hitting," said Shields. "Sometimes that is just the way the game goes."

Today, Liriano will try to post back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The left-hander defeated the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday, as he allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings to run his record to 5-7, while lowering his earned run average to 4.76.

"Frankie got better and better as the game went along," Gardenhire said after his last outing. "I thought [catcher] Joe Mauer did a super job of slowing him down, calming him down. They were talking between innings and I thought it all worked out pretty doggone good. Good sight for us all to see, Frankie calming down and doing what he did."

Liriano was hammered by the Rays the last time he faced them to the tune of seven runs in three innings. He is just 3-3 in his career against them with a 3.72 ERA in six starts.

Tampa, meanwhile, will counter with righty Wade Davis, who is 7-6 with a 4.20 ERA, but had a three-start winning streak stopped in his last trip to the hill. Davis pitched well in defeat against St. Louis on Friday, as he surrendered two runs and six hits in seven innings.

"I kept pounding the strike zone with my fastball and kept getting outs," Davis said. "One bad inning and a couple of mistakes cost us the game."

Davis beat Liriano in that April 27 meeting and has beat the Twins twice this season.