The birth of the Piranhas and Smell ‘Em in July of 2006 was an iconic time to be a Minnesota Twins fan. Unfortunately, the dog days of August ‘06 brought injuries and uncertainty. Through it all, Gardy’s bunch—like the iconic Weeble toy—wobbled but didn’t fall down.
The unrest began on August 7 when after four innings of 10 H, 4 ER ball—very uncharacteristic for the heretofore un-hittable Francisco Liriano—Frankie left his start in Detroit with left forearm inflammation.
Uh oh. Not great, with the
Twins still 10.5 GB the Tigers for the AL Central lead.
A few weeks later—August 25—Brad Radke lasted just 2 IP (3 ER) in a Dome start against the Chicago White Sox. The malady: a torn labrum.
Despite those devastating personnel losses, the Twins continued winning—in large part thanks to their sometimes-pesky (Punto, Tyner, Bartlett, Redmond), sometimes-powerful (Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, Cuddyer) offense. Also: Detroit finally hit a rough patch. When dawn broke on August 26, MN found themselves just 5 GB the Motor City Kitties.
A key “next man up” contributor to this effort was one John Paul “Boof” Bonser. Essentially the throw-in to perhaps the greatest trade in Twins history, Boof made 18 starts to the tune of 100.1 IP in 2006. He wasn’t dominant—4.22 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 106 ERA+—but he held together a starting staff that was essentially little more than “we better hope Johan Santana wins” down the stretch run.
A ray of hope: On September 13, the Cisco Kid returned! Two innings, two strikeouts versus the Oakland Athletics in MN and all looked right with the world again.
That is, until pitch number 36—when Frankie heard a “pop” in his elbow.
It was the final pitch Liriano would twirl for the organization until April of 2008. Like the titular lefty before him, this slider specialist would undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of 2006.
I’ll never forget the metaphorical punch to the gut when I heard that news. It is hard to put into words just how exciting Francisco Liriano was in 2006. The chance to compete for the postseason with a rotation fronted by two dominant lefties was invigorating—until it wasn’t.
Even with such bad juju, an extraordinary circumstance presented itself: On 9/13/06, the Twins were a mere 1.5 GB front-running Detroit. A post-May summer of extraordinary winning (53-27 June-August) had propelled the team right back into the mix to reclaim an AL Central crown. Seventeen games remained to decide that fate.
