I'm very confused.
Why should the Mariners be favored against Liriano?
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr id="head" class="bg2" valign="middle" align="right" height="17"><td class="bg1" align="left">Pitchers</td><td class="bg1" align="center">IP</td><td class="bg1" align="center">H</td><td class="bg1" align="center">R</td><td class="bg1" align="center">ER</td><td class="bg1" align="center">BB</td><td class="bg1" align="center">SO</td><td class="bg1" align="center">HR</td><td class="bg1" align="center">ERA</td></tr><tr class="bg2" valign="middle" align="right" height="17"><td align="left">Francisco Liriano (L,0-1) </td><td align="center">7.0</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">4</td><td align="center">0</td><td align="center">3</td><td align="center">2</td><td align="center">5.14</td></tr></tbody></table>
i don't consider that "getting rocked"
he was pitching at home against another #1 and he got taken yard 2x in key spots. that's getting smoked in my opinion. #s are just #s. sure they don't look bad in retrospect. his team needed him to answer felix and griffey and gutierrez cranked him in big spots. 5.14 era at year's end wouldn't "suck" for the staff ace? are you kidding?
i guess i'm approaching this from a money perspective. i don't care what his stats were. you either win or lose. he needed to be better than felix tonight. he wasn't. he was whacked around a bit. 2 of the 4 hits were critical HRs. you can't do that in tight games against the other team's ace. but boy his stats weren't bad. i'll tell my bookie that.
