"Francisco Liriano was puzzled. He furrowed his brow at the question before finally deciding that he had never heard of Johnny Vander Meer.

Told on the eve of his first start since his own no-hitter that Vander Meer once threw back-to-back no-hitters, Liriano smiled and said, "Oh, he did? Way back in the day?"

Yes, way back in 1938.

"Oh," Liriano said. "Wow."

Seems pretty much impossible, huh?

"Yeah," he said, "I think it is."

Liriano is a man of few words, but on Monday afternoon, he repeated some of them more than once. First off, he's not focused on matching Vander Meer's feat. Second, he said he would take the mound against Detroit tonight at Target Field with one thought on his mind.

"I just want to go out there and have another quality start and give the team a chance to win the game," he said. "I'm not thinking about a no-hitter or anything like that at all. I'm just going to go out there and try to do my best. Just get a quality start."

Liriano threw the first no-hitter in the majors this season one week ago today in Chicago. He struck out just two, walked six and saw his earned-run average shrink from 9.13 to 6.61, becoming the fifth Twin in history to throw a no-hitter and the first since Eric Milton in 1999.

The left-hander might be focused on making tonight a start just like any other, but he almost certainly will have to acknowledge his achievement in front of the home fans, who no doubt will offer him a hearty ovation when he first takes the mound against the Tigers for the 7:10 p.m. ballgame.

The Twins surely don't need another no-hitter from the lefty tonight. Or do they? Asked that question by a reporter on Monday, manager Ron Gardenhire couldn't help himself, interrupting with, "We don't? Who are you kidding? That's the easiest question you're going to ask me all day long. What would I like to see from Frankie? Another doggone no-hitter."

That, of course, is unlikely, and in reality the Twins simply would like to see Liriano channel the confidence that might spill over from last week's history-making outing and build a new beginning after he went 1-4 with a 9.13 ERA in his first five starts. "