So much for those control problems

(Graph courtesy fangraphs.com)

It was a question that lingered, just as it still does with Francisco Liriano and his repaired ligament: Will Slowey ever be the same?

It's a fair question, of course. Slowey was so good in 2008 that it surprises me when I look at the stats. 3.99 ERA. 5.13 K/BB ratio. Three complete games. It's no wonder people are comparing him to Brad Radke every day: A healthy and consistent Slowey will indeed be at least as good as Radke was.

Tuesday night showed just how evident that is, as it appeared that the 2008 version of Kevin Slowey showed up and definitely shut down Shin-Soo Choo and the Indians. The Twins won 5-1.

Defensively, the Twins executed the formula exactly as manager Ron Gardenhire and the Twins' front office would like it to be. Slowey's control dominated a very vulnerable Indians lineup: 8 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 9K. Slowey threw 98 pitches in the game, 70 for strikes. Yeah, 70. No errors, no mess. Solid defense and solid pitching by the Twins kept them in the ball game no matter what happened on the other side of things.

The Twins focused on what they could control and would have kept it a close game...had Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera fielded an easy ground ball hit by Delmon Young and turned it into a double play. He didn't, and then a bases-loaded walk, a wild pitch, an error, and a sacrifice fly turned the 1-1 pitchers duel into a 5-1 game.

It was a strange statistic line for Cleveland starter Justin Masterson (0-2, 3.00 ERA): 4.0 IP, 5 R, 2 ER*, 5 BB, 6 K. (*Officially 2 ER, but Cabrera's error prevented a double play, which a.) means none of those runs would have scored... and b.) could not be reflected on Masterson's number) Masterson was at the (unforgiving) mercy of his own defense and I think we learned who the better team was, even if it was an unconventional method of winning.

Tonight, game 2 of the series features David Huff going up against Francisco...you can read more about Huff and his stuff (heh, heh) in yesterday's blog.

Francisco Liriano looks to build on his last start last week. "Franchise" figures to be a dominating force if he can continue to be confident with his fastball and changeup and not rely on his devastating slider. A cakewalk of a lineup should allow Liriano to inflate his numbers considerably...especially if he has the command that Slowey did Tuesday night.