MINNEAPOLIS _ One was suspended. The other was injured. Both returned to the Twins lineup Tuesday.
"These are two guys and, we obviously have others, but two guys that our group has been waiting to see back out there," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.
And Michael Pineda and Byron Buxton both made a mark on a game the Twins desperately needed to win.
Pineda, the righthander who had finished serving a 60-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy, gave up two runs in the first inning to one of the hottest offenses in baseball, but settled in to shut the White Sox down for the next five with a 3-2 win.
Buxton, who landed on the injured list because of inflammation in his left shoulder, made sure Pineda kept putting up zeros by jumping at the wall in the sixth inning by catching a drive by Edwin Encarnacion that looked headed for the flower patch beyond the fence in left-center. At the plate, his 106-miles-per-hour single to left drove in Nelson Cruz with the lead run in the seventh.
Matt Wisler pitched the ninth inning for his first save, backed by an impressive stop by third baseman Ehire Adrianza that took away a potential double by Eloy Jiminez.
The Twins, possibly inspired by the return of their teammates, fought back from the early 2-0 deficit.
They scratched out a run in the fifth when Marwin Gonzalez was safe at first when White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu couldn't hold onto a throw that would have led to an inning-ending double play. Jorge Polanco scored from third.
White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel was removed after the fifth, and the Twins went after reliever Jimmy Cordero.
Back-to-back pinch hitters came through: Jake Cave tripled to right-center, then Luis Arraez doubled into the right-field corner to score Cave and tie the score at 2-2. It was the first time the Twins had multiple pinch hits in the same inning since April 11, 1989.
The Twins seemed on the verge of a bigger inning, but Arraez attempted to advance to third on a grounder to short and was thrown out, then Polanco flew out to end the inning.
Pineda, making his first start since Sept. 6 of last season, had a pretty loud first inning. Three of his pitches were squared up for exit velocities over 95 miles per hour, including Eloy Jimenez's 111.6-mph missile to left-center that drove in the first two runs of the game. But Pineda's fastball-slider combo started clicking, and he eased through Chicago's lineup. He needed only 11 pitches to get through the third and only five in the fourth. He got 11 swings and misses with his slider, which had wicked movement all night.
After giving up the two runs in the first, Pineda pitched five scoreless innings before being relieved by Caleb Thielbar after the sixth. It was the type of outing the Twins saw from Pineda late last season before the suspension, and the kind the Twins hoped they would get Tuesday.
"We're just going to let Big Mike throw and see how the hitters respond and see how he responds and let him go from there," Baldelli said before the game. "So we're going to let him just pitch and we're going to assess as the start goes on."
Pineda gave up two runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts. He had thrown 81 pitches _ 39 fastballs, 36 sliders and six changeups _ when he was removed from the game.
