Francisco Liriano is certainly one of the top young pitchers that are in the Major Leagues these days. He is one of the aces on the pitching staff of the Minnesota Twins but before Tuesday night had been struggling to open up the season and was sitting on a 1-4 record with an earned run average over 10. Tuesday night though Liriano was able to redeem himself as he threw a no hitter against the Chicago White Sox which resulted in a 1-0 win for the Twins.
Liriano threw 123 pitches in the complete game performance. The amazing thing was that Liriano had never thrown a shutout let alone a no hitter going into the game on Tuesday night. Liriano admitted that he was running out of gas and actually did not have stats vindicative of a no hitter as he only threw 66 strikes and walked 6 batters while only striking out two. Still in the end the score and the no hitter is what counted and Francisco Liriano was credited with the first no hitter of the 2011 regular season.
The lone Twins run came off the bat of Jason Kubel as he hit a home run in the fourth inning. The no hitter for Liriano was certainly fullfilling for a pitcher that has seen his highs but also seen some lows over the past couple of years.
In other sports news from Tuesday night, the Miami Heat took a 2-0 series lead over the Boston Celtics with a 102-91 win. Lebron James had 35 points and Dewayne Wade followed with 28 in the win. Chris Bosh came through with a double-double and had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Rajon Rondo had a double for the Celtics in the loss with 20 points and 12 assists and came four rebounds from a triple-double with six rebounds.
In the NHL playoffs, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals and have a 3-0 series lead.
