Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Center fielder Jose Bautista robs Minnesota's Joe Mauer of a hit in the fourth inning last night.

It certainly was impressive that Francisco Liriano, Minnesota's magnificent 22-year-old rookie, struck out 11 in seven innings last night at PNC Park.

And that he almost singlehandedly lifted his Twins to a 4-2 doubling of the Pirates with an almost unfair array of 96-mph fastballs, benders and breakers from the left side.

"Nasty," first baseman Sean Casey said after an 0-for-3 night and a swinging strikeout. "As nasty as anybody I've seen."

Still, nothing offered a greater gasp factor for Liriano's performance than, of all things, the extraordinary effort the Pirates had to give to earn the two runs he actually allowed.

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With two outs and a man aboard in the third, Jack Wilson worked a 3-1 count.

Then fouled off a pitch.

Then another.

And three more.

All were offspeed, a sign of Liriano's uncanny confidence and command.

"Changeup, slider, changeup, slider," Liriano recalled in his thick Dominican accent. "I just kept going at him."

That is, until he relented on the 10th pitch and offered Wilson a 96-mph fastball, sweetly placed down in the zone.

Somehow, Wilson reached low down and put the fat part of the bat on it for a stunning home run to the left-field bleachers and a 2-0 Pirates lead.

"He made good contact, you know?" Liriano said. "That's baseball. There's nothing you can do about that."

Asked if he had made a mistake pitch, he replied, "No, no."

That poise is only a small part of why some in baseball are glowingly comparing Liriano to teammate Johan Santana, another dominant left-hander who will start the series finale tomorrow. Some believe he might end up better.

Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire shuns comparisons of any kind, but he made no attempt to downplay his wunderkind's impact on this outcome.

"You got a chance to see Liriano tonight," he said in his opening comments afterward. "Great arm. Great stuff."

Great numbers, too.

Liriano improved to 5-1 in six starts, with a 1.50 ERA, 35 strikeouts and an opponent's batting average of .150.

"We've seen this on more than one occasion, where hitters are having a hard time putting the ball in play off him," Gardenhire said. "His stuff just keeps jumping."

Pirates manager Jim Tracy was no less effusive.

"There is no getting around the fact that this kid is real good. Liriano is real good," Tracy said. "He's been talked about an awful lot here as of late and rightfully so. Your margin for error when you're matched up against a guy who is throwing the ball as well as he is throwing it is slim to none."

That would be proven true.

Ian Snell, who has shown no small amount of potential as the Pirates' finest starter this season, was in line for a sixth victory in as many outings after holding Minnesota scoreless through six with two hits. His team still led, 2-0, going into the seventh.

But he found immediate trouble with his first walk of the night, to Nick Punto.

Joe Mauer, the American League's leading hitter, lined a single. Michael Cuddyer doubled just inside the left-field line to bring home Punto and push Mauer to third. Justin Morneau's sacrifice fly tied the score. And Torii Hunter's RBI bouncer through a drawn-in infield drove in Cuddyer to put the Twins ahead, 3-2.

"I didn't execute my pitches in the seventh," Snell said.

The Pirates took a last crack at Liriano in the bottom half. Freddy Sanchez led off with a single and took second on Ronny Paulino's two-out chopper up the middle. Tracy sent veteran Joe Randa to pinch-hit, presenting a right-lefty matchup that would appear to favor the Pirates.

Gardenhire thought about that, too.

But not for long.

"We let him pitch in the big situation there to Randa because we've got so much trust in him," Gardenhire said. "You give him the chance, and he's going to grow from it down the road."

Liriano made Randa his 11th strikeout victim.

"I just went out there to do my best," Liriano said. "My pitches were all working good, and I had a lot of movement on my fastballs."

He turned the game over to Minnesota's league-best bullpen and, while the Twins tacked on a run against Mike Gonzalez in the ninth, Juan Rincon and Joe Nathan each set the Pirates down 1-2-3 in the final two innings.

"It was a good ballgame that involved two very good young pitchers," Tracy said. "It just was very obvious with the way Liriano was throwing tonight that we were not going to be able to get a whole lot."