All things being almost equal, I think it’s time to bring up Francisco Liriano and give him a try. Tonight, he pitched seven innings against Toledo — one of the better teams in the International League — and shut down the Hens for seven innings on two hits and two walks over seven innings. That brought his Rochester record to 9-2, 3.13, including one earned run in his last 35 innings.

That’s a 0.26 ERA.

Right now is the time to move one of the young starters to long relief and see what Liriano can do. Having a second lefty in the rotation trumps the current arrangement, and the pitcher who gets demoted (Slowey or Blackburn) needs to see this as a chance for the Twins to make a serious run at the division — in the same way that a trade for a right-handed bat is going to cost the current right-handers some playing time.

Besides, there’s probably going to be a key game or two when the Twins are going to need a spot starter, even if all arms stay healthy. (Think road rainouts and the potential for a doubleheader or two.)

It doesn’t make sense to keep Brian Bass in Minnesota and Liriano in Rochester. At this point, it simply doesn’t.

The best scenario: Monday night at the Metrodome against the White Sox. Liriano takes Slowey’s spot in the rotation for the opener of the big four-game series. The White Sox pretty much chewed through the Twins rotation last month, so let’s give ‘em a different look and see what happens.

other people are here too

This is LaVelle’s news not mine, but he just called in and told one of the editors that he saw the lineup card for tonight’s game. Carlos Gomez has been dropped to the No. 9 spot in the batting order and Denard Span is leading off.

LaVelle will have more later after he talks to Gardy.

Start the chant: The people… united… will never be defeated!

other people are here too

More than anything, it was probably the sight of Sidney Ponson shutting down the Twins on a night when he had mediocre stuff. That’s what it looked like watching him and that’s what he said during a postgame interview on the Yankees broadcast.

Or it could have been the give-up at-bats that seemed to permeate the batting order after the Twins fell behind 6-2. There was a little too much flailing at the plate when a measured approach could have wreaked some havoc against a pitcher who said he “got behind a lot of guys.” Where were the intelligent at-bats of last week’s Detroit comeback?

Or maybe it was watching Denard Span (.424 on-base percentage) go 3-for-4 while batting ninth and Carlos Gomez (.281) going 0-for-5 in the leadoff spot. This simply has to stop. I was willing to give Gardy benefit of the doubt last week, but after the last two games, charity has left the keyboard. (For the record, 74 percent of the 3,400-plus people who voted in our “poll” yesterday said Gomez should be batting ninth.)

Or maybe it’s my suspicion that Morneau’s hand was bothering him at the plate last night, despite the reports that he’s fine. That was an ugly 0-for-4. Please let me be wrong on that one.

Or it could have been watching the Yankees play small ball when they went from a 2-2 tie to a 6-2 lead in the seventh with an assortment of just-barely hits and Alexi Casilla’s unfortunate bouncing throw home that Mauer couldn’t contain.

Or maybe it’s the silliness about Nick Blackburn being “too strong” after his eight-day layoff — and having Dick’n'Bert cite that as a reason he stunk last night. If the Twins had been concerns about Blackburn being “too strong” they would have:

a) Started him on Friday so he would have been pitching on his usual rest.

b) Had him work a strenuous bullpen session between starts to keep his arm “tired.”

Sometimes, pitchers simply have stinky outings. At least Ron Coomer, watching from the stands, pointed out that his fastball was flat instead of sinking and Blackburn said the layoff wasn’t the problem.

Also, after watching the All-Star Game last week, I didn’t need to see great Yankee and Yankee Stadium moments again during a Twins telecast. It seemed hollow by comparison and hokey, all the more when they cut away at one point to show Coomer’s first at-bat home run during his stint with the Yankees. (Keep in mind, of course, that everything I’ve written about so far left me in no mood to listen to happy talk about enemy property. As I keyboard, my calm self is urging my mad self to chill. “Yo, self. If the Twins were ahead 12-4 would … this… bother… you???)

If the Twins broadcast crew wants to do something special the next couple of games, they should show Morneau’s home run off Ron Villone two years back — and his scowling-and-growling run around the bases because of the earlier game when Villone beaned Morneau. Or show Shannon Stewart running into the wall to make that catch during the ‘03 playoffs. Or even the Don Mattingly home run that caused Ron Davis to break down and cry in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse back in the mid ’80s. (Morning Update: And, of course, they should show Bert’s F-bombin’ intro from a couple of years back. How could I effin’ forget?)

Just don’t show me any more Derek Jeter and A-Rod moments.

Growl, grumble. Twins are only a half-game out. Good job in Chicago, Josh Hamilton.

Get ‘em tonight.

other people are here too

If your name is Taylor Teagarden and you’re a jock, you’d better be good. Just sayin.’

After the aforementioned Mr. Teagarden (it only seems right to use the honorific) was the offensive difference in yesterday’s 1-0 victory over Scott Baker, it brought to mind the other home run by an unfortunately named catcher that once did in the Twins: the legendary Jamie Quirk home run in Cleveland back in ‘84 that pretty much KO’d the Twins from the pennant race.

The Quirk home run, in the final series of the season, was his only hit of 1984. Mr. Teagarden’s homer is his only hit with the Rangers so far, and there’s a good chance it will remain so for quite a while. Mr. T has been named to the Olympic team and, in order to participate in Beijing, he needs to be returned to the minors by Tuesday.

An aside: The Rangers current have three catchers on their roster. Mr. T, Gerald Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Maximiliano (Max) Ramirez — and one of them is almost certain to go when the Rangers reactivate two injured players. Saltalamacchia was sick this weekend, which explained Mr. Teagarden’s call-up. Someone on a Rangers blog has suggested the team combine the catchers into one “super psopect” who would be named Maximus Saltalamacchia-Teagarden. While that won’t happen, Lord knows that Saltalamacchia’s sister better not do a marry-and-hyphenate deal with Mr. T.

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OK, I’m gonna say one more thing about the Morneau/Hamilton lack of recognition thing, just because I almost drove into my garage door when I heard this. Bill Ripken, who I’m usually like listening to on XM, was talking about the contest and said that Morneau would have done the right thing by turning the title over to Hamilton during the postgame ceremony. I love when hyper-competitive people — and pro athletes go into that group by default — tell other people how they should compete.

Here’s a better and more constructive thought: The geniuses from State Farm should have acknowledged Hamilton’s extraordinary performance by cutting a $50,000 check to the Boys and Girls Club that Hamilton was hitting for, in addition to the check for the club that Morneau represented.

That would have been the classy thing to do.

OK, we’re done with that. We are, right?

Not much wisdom and analysis to offer. I’m glad Gardy found a reason to pitch Glen Perkins tonight because that gets the left-hander a start at Yankee Stadium against the left-tilting Yankees in a ballpark that favors lefty pitchers. Did you notice that the Twins get to face Sidney Ponson in the series opener on Monday? Oh, the drama.

I think this is also a good time to stop talking about a Beltre-for-Cuddyer/Livan deal, mostly because the Twins would make it in a second, and there’s no way that the wretched Mariners need an above-average veteran right fielder and another ex-Twins pitcher with a high ERA.

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