CHICAGO — There he stood, the pitcher formerly known as Franchise, the left-hander who started this ballgame with his place in the rotation in jeopardy and ended it, a short two hours and nine minutes later, the owner of a no-hitter. He walked six batters, threw 123 pitches (tying his career high), struck out only two, and, when it was all over, Francisco Liriano looked relieved.
He watched Matt Tolbert catch Adam Dunn’s lineout for the 27th out of the game, he exhaled and, as his teammates rushed in from all sides, showed the smallest semblance of a smile.
Nothing about the outcome of the Twins’ 1-0 win over the White Sox was likely, not even the most fundamental of results — that Liriano, with a 9.13 earned-run average entering Tuesday night’s game, would lead the Twins to a win. Not that he’d do so by throwing the first complete game at any level of his professional career and certainly not that it would be a no-hitter.
But nothing about this Twins season has been predictable, and Tuesday’s result finally offered something to celebrate. Not that this team knew how to go about celebrating the fifth no-hitter in Twins history.
“We kind of all didn’t know what to do,” first baseman Justin Morneau said. “It’s the first one I’ve been a part of, so I just started running toward the mound and then Drew (Butera) picked him up and hugged him and then we all jumped in there. He was getting beat up, a couple of shots in the ribs.”
In the immediate aftermath, Liriano’s half smile turned full. He told Fox Sports North he was “so nervous” and “so happy.” Not long after, though, his left arm wrapped in ice, Liriano was more subdued, insisting his excitement with a straight face that relayed no such emotion.
“That,” Morneau said, “is Frankie.”
Perhaps, though, it’s hard to know.
The Twins have seen so many versions of this 27-year-old since his 2006 dominance gave way to Tommy John surgery, since his inability to find the strike zone after returning from that elbow surgery left him in the minors, since he admitted being so wracked mentally that he didn’t know what pitch to throw with runners on base and, most recently, since he seemed destined for the bullpen if Tuesday’s start had not gone well.
Liriano (2-4) needed a turnaround as bad as his team, mired in a six-game losing streak, did. He needed something to hold on to, something to build on, and the White Sox, with their own disastrous start to 2011 weighing heavily, helped him find it.
“I think it’s a big weight off his shoulders,” pitching coach Rick Anderson said. “He (was) up against it. If a guy says he’s not pressing, he’s lying.”
Liriano’s night was not thick with brilliance or ripe with dominant pitches, and Anderson admitted he’s “probably seen (Liriano) with better stuff.” And with all the walks, Anderson didn’t realize his starter was on the way to history until he looked up at the scoreboard in the fifth.
Liriano claimed he didn’t realize what was happening until the eighth inning, though when told that, Butera smiled wide and said simply, “He’s lying.”
“Everybody was walking away from me and nobody was talking to me,” Liriano said of his eighth-inning awakening, “so I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ ”
Early in the game, what was going on was more of the same from the starter.
Liriano walked the first batter he faced He walked another in the second, but both times benefited from inning-ending double plays. He retired the side in order in the third, then walked two more in the fourth. But after issuing his fourth walk, Liriano retired his next 11 batters before Ramon Castro drew one-out walk in the eighth.
Before that, though, Danny Valencia saved Liriano’s place in history, ranging to the foul line behind the third-base bag to backhand Carlos Quentin’s just-fair ball, then making a long throw to first for the third out of the seventh inning.
With that play, Michael Cuddyer said, it all became real.
“When Danny made that play, that backhand,” Cuddyer said, “you’re thinking this is a legitimate chance.”
Said Valencia of the play: “It took a bad hop, I got it in my glove, and I’m going, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to make the throw.’ … You’re kind of on edge a little bit because you’re nervous, you want to make every play, you want to go hard after everything because you know what’s on the line. Not to mention it’s a one-run game.”
It was a one-run game, thanks to Jason Kubel’s solo homer off Chicago starter Edwin Jackson (who no doubt could relate to Liriano’s night after walking eight and throwing 149 pitches in his 2010 no-hitter). Liriano, Kubel and three inning-ending double plays made it stay that way.
Morneau made a fantastic scoop on a Matt Tolbert throw for the first out of the ninth inning, going down on one knee and one hand and managing to hold on to the ball in his glove for the out despite it being “as close to falling out of my glove as it could be.”
It wasn’t the first time in the game that Morneau came through, though his earlier play took more theatrical skill. With one out and a runner on first in the eighth, Tolbert started a 6-4-3 double play attempt. Alexi Casilla’s throw from second pulled Morneau off the bag, and Morneau sold first-base umpire Paul Emmel on what seemed to be a phantom tag.
Afterward, Morneau grinned knowingly when asked about the play.
“You try to make your reaction like you get him,” he said. “I don’t know if (the ump) is going to be too happy with me once he looks at it. It’s part of the game. You try to sell it. You try to get outs for your pitchers whenever you can.”
Before Tuesday, Liriano hadn’t eclipsed 97 pitches in an outing this season, and though Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is known for protecting his pitchers, so much so that he pulled Kevin Slowey after seven no-hit innings last season because the right-hander was coming off an arm injury, the manager said he was not budging from his place in the dugout Tuesday night.
“I wasn’t walking out there to the mound, I’ll tell you that one,” Gardenhire said. “That was going to happen or not happen and I’m glad it happened.”
Afterward, Gardenhire remained in the dugout, watching his players rush the field, taking in the joy.
“How about all those guys running out there at the end? You pay for stuff like that,” Gardenhire said as reporters filed out of his office, the manager smiling, truly, for the first time in so long. “Wasn’t that sweet, though?”
Follow Kelsie Smith on Twitter.com/twinsnow.
