DETROIT _ If this is the payoff, the Twins might have discovered baseball's newest market inefficiency: The injured list.
Michael Pineda, in his first day back on the active roster, held Detroit to three runs over five innings and stranded three Tigers in scoring position. Mitch Garver, in the lineup for only the fifth time since coming off the injured list, smacked a two-run homer and added a run-scoring single. And Nelson Cruz, activated only three days earlier, broke an eighth-inning tie with a home run of his own.
The wounded-no-more Twins combined to keep the team's AL Central lead healthy with a 6-3 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park. Somebody give that medical staff a raise.
Oh, there were contributions from other Twins, too. Marwin Gonzalez doubled twice and singled twice, his first four-hit game since last year's playoffs. C.J. Cron, after an eight-homer May, connected for the first time in June. And Ryne Harper, the 30-year-old rookie reliever deprived of his first career victory by a Cleveland rally on Wednesday, earned it two days later by striking out the side in the seventh inning.
But against Detroit left-hander Matthew Boyd, the Twins received a strong reminder of what they have been missing lately while their injured players healed.
Pineda wasn't at his best, not after a two-week layoff to allow the soreness in his knees to subside, but he made big pitches when he had to, and for the fourth time in five starts, he didn't issue a walk.
"He's excited to be back out there. His rehab went very well," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the veteran right-hander before the game. "You can tell from the way he's kind of bouncing around that he's ready to go."
Same for Garver, who sat out three weeks because of a high ankle sprain. The catcher went 2-for-13 in his first four appearances since returning, but he was ready when Boyd tried to sneak a high fastball past him with a 3-2 count in the third inning. The sky-high fly ball landed in the Twins bullpen, Garver's 10th home run of the year.
And when Boyd departed with the score tied 3-3 and the Tigers turned to right-hander Joe Jimenez, Cruz lifted a 96-mph fastball over the middle of the plate into the front row of seats in right field, his second home run in three starts since returning from a sore left wrist.
The Twins beat Detroit for the sixth time in seven meetings this season, and this one was special to Harper. The AL's oldest rookie, drafted in 2011 and pitching in the major leagues for the first time, Harper entered in a tie game for the first time all season, and his curveball was sharper than ever.
Harper threw 10 curves in the inning, and got five swing-and-misses with it from Niko Goodrum, Christin Stewart and Nicholas Castellanos _ including the third strike on all three.
Once Cruz homered in the next half-inning, and the Twins tacked on two more insurance runs on RBI singles by Gonzalez and Garver, Harper became the winning pitcher for the first time in his career.
Blake Parker, who allowed the late runs that prevented Harper from earning a victory on Wednesday, this time pitched a scoreless ninth inning to collect his ninth save _ although he had to pitch out of trouble, retiring Miguel Cabrera on a line drive with two runners on to end it on his 28th pitch of the evening.
