Liriano, who compiled a 12-3 record for Minnesota during an injury-curtailed 2006 rookie season, was sent down by the Twins last week after several bad outings at the big league level.
Hard times continued for Liriano after a 1-2-3 first inning. He walked two batters to start the second inning and then gave up a sacrifice fly to Chadd Spann.
In the third inning, Pawtucket scored twice as Gil Velazquez led off with a single and came home on Jeff Bailey’s two-run homer to left.
Liriano put together another 1-2-3 inning in the third before running into trouble again in the fifth. Joe Thurston got things going with a double. After George Kottaras struck out, Sandy Madera walked. Keith Ginter, who went 3-for-3 on the day, followed with a double to left.
Liriano then intentionally walked Dusty Brown before being lifted after throwing 94 pitches, just 51 for strikes.
The PawSox got another strong outing from Charlie Zink, who allowed just two runs in six innings of work. Chris Smith tossed the final three frames for his first save.
Pawtucket now heads to Syracuse for a 7 p.m. game tonight. Devern Han-sack (0-3) will pitch for the PawSox, who return home next Monday. If all goes according to plan, Pawtucket’s pitcher that evening will be Bartolo Colon.

 PAWSOX, 4-2 
PAWT. ab r h bi ROCH. ab r h bi
Bailey lf 5 1 1 2 Span rf 4 1 1 0
Thurston rf 5 1 1 0 Pride cf 4 0 2 0
Kttras dh 3 0 0 0 McDnld lf 4 1 0 1
Madera 1b 3 1 0 0 Jones 1b 4 0 0 0
VnEvry cf 0 0 0 0 Clark 2b 4 0 1 1
Ginter 2b 3 0 3 1 Ruiz dh 4 0 0 0
Brown c 4 0 1 0 Morales c 4 0 1 0
Spann 3b 4 0 1 1 Basak 3b 2 0 0 0
Pritz cf 5 0 1 0 Casilla ss 2 0 0 0
Velzqz ss 3 1 1 0 
Totals 35 4 9 4 Totals 32 2 5 2   
Pawtucket  012  010  000 — 4
Rochester  000  002  000 — 2
E — Spann (1), Clark (2). LOB — Pawtucket 13, Rochester 5. 2B — Thurston (2), Ginter 2 (3). HR — Bailey (3), third inning, of Liriano). SF — Spann. SB — Span (5), McDonald (2), Pride (5).

 IP H R ER BB SO
PAWT.
Zink (W, 1-1) 6 4 2 1 2 2
Smith (S,1) 3 1 0 0 0 4 
ROCH.
Liriano (L, 0-1) 4.1 5 4 4 5 3
Barrett  1.2 0 0 0 2 0
Gomez 1.2 3 0 0 1 1
DePaula 1.1 1 0 0 0 1
WP — Smith, Barrett.
Time: 2:47. Att.: 3,994.