"Francisco Liriano was flooded with interview requests, phone calls and text messages after his May 3 no-hitter against the White Sox.

Sunday's performance won't receive near the attention, but he was better, no matter what history says.

Liriano's bid for a perfect game ended in the seventh inning. His no-hit and shutout bids ended in the eighth. But after the Twins defeated Texas 6-1 at Target Field, the praise for Liriano was overflowing.

"I haven't seen Frankie pitch like that in a long time, even in that no-hitter," said Michael Cuddyer, who hit a three-run homer in the seventh. "He was more erratic that night. His stuff got him a no-hitter. Today was like Frankie of '06."

The Twins, who have won nine of their past 11 games, don't use those words lightly because Liriano was baseball's most dominant pitcher in 2006 before getting derailed by an elbow injury. Until Sunday, few even would have compared him to the Frankie of 2010, who went 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA.

The Rangers saw something better.

Liriano needed only 64 pitches to get through the first six innings, as he racked up seven strikeouts. Texas didn't have its first baserunner until Elvis Andrus reached on third baseman Luke Hughes' error with one out in the seventh.

"I was disappointed to ruin the perfect game by booting the ball," Hughes said. "But Frankie got me out of that jam. It was so much fun to watch him go to work again."

Liriano had to wait nearly 30 minutes between his final pitch of the seventh inning and first pitch in the eighth, as the Twins stretched their lead from 1-0 to 6-1. That included the seven-minute delay when the Rangers changed pitchers after Matt Harrison took Danny Valencia's liner off his left triceps."