"Even before the snow started falling on Target Field on Wednesday night, Francisco Liriano succumbed to the conditions.

The left-hander, in his first outing since a 6 1/3-inning, five-hit, two-run, five-walk start drew praise from Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, crumpled in a three-inning heap of runs and walks and hard-hit balls sprayed all over Target Field.

The first, disastrous inning went like this: double, single, double, triple, single. Five hits, four runs and no outs. Next came two strikeouts, then a walk with a stolen base mixed in and, finally, a groundout by Tampa Bay No. 9 hitter Reid Brignac to end the inning.

By then Liriano had thrown 40 pitches. He came back to retire six of his next seven batters but unraveled for good in the fourth, giving up a single and two walks to load the bases with no outs. Gardenhire yanked the lefty in favor Eric Hacker, who threw his first two pitches to the backstop, then issued back-to-back bases-loaded walks.

The Twins walked nine batters, and Liriano was responsible for four of those. He has now walked 18 batters in five starts this season and said after Wednesday's game that, although he didn't want to make excuses, the cold weather (it was 40 degrees at game time with biting 17-mph winds from the north) hampered his ability to get warmed up and to grip the ball. "