Friday, May 6, 2011

LiriaNo-No

Liriano, who just so happened to throw his first professional complete game also threw his first no-hitter.

I watched this game and saw for myself how the men in blue helped Liriano achieve such a feat - they helped him in a big way.

It has been dubbed 'the out that wasn't'.

With pinch-runner Brent Lillibridge (White Sox) on first and only one out in the eight, Gordon Beckham (White Sox) jumped on the first pitch and hit a one-hopper to Danny Valencia. Valencia cleanly handled the ball and executed a perfect throw to Alexi Casilla, who was manning second base.

Liriano no hitterCasilla, wanting a perfect throw to Morneau, took his time making the toss and, unfortunately the throw pulled Morneau off the bag down the first base line toward the catcher... and Beckham. Morneau took a swipe at Beckham and clearly missed him (this was apparent to viewers at home who were provided a slow replay), but first-base umpire Paul Emmel called Beckham out to end the inning and to keep the no-hitter alive!

The out that wasn't.

In this amazing win, Liriano threw 123 pitches to catcher Drew Butera.

Now a game with the White Sox would be more than disappointing, even if it is a Twins no-hitter, if we weren't privy to an outburst by Ozzie Guillen. Lucky for us, the Morneau-Beckham play resulted in Ozzie storming the field in protest... Guillen made it as far as the third-base line before turning around and walking back in to the dugout.

Looks like our man Guillen has grown somewhat of an expert as to when arguing is appropriate - he is learning to pick is battles instead of battling all the time. I know I'm disappointed and I was disappointed that night too when I saw Guillen emerge from the dugout. I hopped right on Twitter to see what he would have to say... That lesson appears to be learned as well.

Ozzie Guillen needs to revert back to his old ways before I lose interest and start following Kobe Bryant's outbursts instead - now he knows how to start a media frenzy.

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