TORONTO – On Sunday, the Twins will be trying to avoid their first 0-3 start since 1981, their final year at Metropolitan Stadium.
Plenty of good teams have started slow. In 1998, for example, the Yankees started 0-3 but finished 114-48 and won the World Series.
But that shouldn't make the events of the past two days at Rogers Centre any less disturbing for the Twins.
Yes, it's the beginning of a very long season, but they already have watched their top two starters — Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano — implode against the Blue Jays.
One day after Pavano recorded only 12 outs in a blowout loss, the Twins wanted Liriano at his best Saturday, and he wasn't even close, as Toronto rolled to a 6-1 victory.
Liriano was no match for Blue Jays rookie Kyle Drabek, who pitched seven innings for his first major league victory. The Twins managed one hit — a sixth-inning single by Denard Span — and hit only two balls out of the infield.
Still, the bigger issue was Liriano, who went 3-0 with a 0.93 ERA last April en route to a 14-10 finish.
"I was just kind of all over the place," Liriano said after walking five batters in 4u2153 innings and throwing only 44 of his 90 pitches for strikes.
Liriano had poor command with diminished velocity, which is always a red flag, especially since he had left shoulder stiffness early in spring training.
According to fangraphs.com, his fastball averaged 93.7 miles per hour last year, and Saturday it sat from 89 to 92 mph, with one pitch to Jose Bautista that touched 93.
Liriano, who gave up nine home runs all of last season, surrendered two Saturday, both on first-pitch fastballs over the plate. Jose Molina jumped on Liriano's 89-mph offering to start the third inning, and Jayson Nix did the same with a 92-mph pitch in the fourth.
"Nothing hurts," Liriano said. "Just didn't feel as much power in my arm today."
The Twins are less concerned about Liriano's velocity than his inability to calm himself when things around him get hectic.
"Early in the game, he was in control," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He was nice and smooth and had a few good innings out there. But as soon as a couple things happened, he started flying off the ball and overthrowing the ball.
"Everybody was telling him to calm down, but he's got to be able to do that himself. You saw him bouncing 40-foot sliders and changeups. Joe Mauer took an absolute beating out there."
Liriano's last three spring training outings were up and down. He baffled the Orioles — and Gardenhire — with a three-inning, nine-strikeout, 76-pitch outing March 23, then held the Pirates to three runs over six innings in his final spring start.
The Pirates outing "was as good as we've ever seen him — under control, throwing the ball really, really well," Gardenhire said. "That's what we thought we were going to get today. Started out that way but didn't finish up."
Liriano said he might have been too excited Saturday, a common experience for a pitcher in his season debut. As with Pavano, Liriano's next start will be at Yankee Stadium, and those two games will bookend this daunting road trip for the Twins.
Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com