Twins starter Liriano gets wild in loss to Bucs

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Francisco Liriano was about as confused as he was wild.

After dominating batters for much of spring training, Liriano walked four and allowed two runs in the Minnesota Twins’ 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday.

“My second inning, I lost my strike zone,” said Liriano, who had reconstructive surgery on his left elbow in 2007. “I don’t know what happened.”

Liriano had walked just one batter and struck out 10 in two previous outings this spring training before the second.

In the inning, Adam LaRoche singled then Liriano walked LaRoche’s brother Andy and Neil Walker to load the bases with no outs. He then got two groundouts — one a double play following an error — to escape having given up two runs, one earned.

“Yeah, [the spring] has been going well for me,” said Liriano, whose ERA rose by .01 to 2.20. “All my pitches are looking good this year. My slider’s looking better. I’ve been throwing my fastball better. But not [Wednesday]. I couldn’t throw fastballs for strikes.”

Matt Tolbert and Delmon Young homered off Pirates starter Zach Duke. Anderson Machado singled in the winning run. Jeff Salazar, who had advanced on an errant pickoff attempt by Minnesota reliever Kevin Mulvey and Andrew McCutchen’s single, scored the winning run.

In four innings, Liriano stuck out two, walked four and allowed one hit.

“Frankie was pretty good,” Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Kind of missing with his fastball, it was diving all over the place. He was throwing a two-seamer, and it was really diving. He got a little better after he settled down. I think he was trying to be a little too mechanical. After (pitching coach Rick Anderson) talked to him, he got going a little better. So that was pretty good.”

Duke had his longest start of the spring, giving up five hits and two runs in five innings. He struck out four.

Pirates coach Tony Beasley, who managed Duke in the minors, thinks the left-hander looks as if he appears to be pitching the way he was when he went 8-2 as a rookie in 2005. Duke is 18-37 since then,

“That’s what I saw in his past,” Pirates coach Tony Beasley said of the outing