Tigers Give Liriano Plenty of Problems

Francisco Liriano still isn’t sound, and he sure didn’t look it against the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers roughed up Liriano in a 9-3 rout Monday, and after the game, Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire announced that Liriano is still suffering from soreness in his left forearm.

“It’s a muscular problem -- as the game was going on, he started to feel it,” Gardenhire said. “We had him checked out before, and everything was fine, but we’ll have him checked out again. It’s muscles, not his elbow.”

After facing the Tigers on July 28, Liriano (12-3) missed his next start because of inflammation in the forearm. The rest did not seem to help, as he gave up four runs and a season-high 10 hits in only four innings. He struck out five.

Liriano has a 7.63 earned-run average against Detroit this season, more than five times higher than his ERA (1.39) against the rest of the majors.

Zach Miner (7-2) won the duel of rookie starters, giving up three runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.

“Against that guy, you know you have to be on,” he said. “He’s not going to give you many chances.”

Marcus Thames hit a long homer and Magglio Ordonez drove in a pair of runs for the Tigers, who have won four straight and six of seven. Detroit (76-36) is now a season-best 40 games over .500.

The Twins’ four-game winning streak ended, and they now trail Detroit by 10 1/2 games in the AL Central.

“Every time you make a mistake against that team, they make you pay for it,” Gardenhire said.