"As Francisco Liriano emerged last season from a long battle with his elbow - a battle that included Tommy John surgery way back in the fall of 2004 - the left-hander rattled off winning streaks of four and eight games, re-establishing himself as the Twins' most talented starter.

With a 9-4 victory Saturday night over the Yankees, his first against the Twins' arch-nemesis, Liriano won consecutive starts for the first time in 2011.

"I didn't know that," he said. "It's been a tough year, kind of up and down."

Liriano has been dominant at times this season, throwing a no-hitter on May 3 at Chicago, and taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a victory over American League West leader Texas on June 12. On Saturday, he held the AL's top-scoring team to one unearned run on three hits and three walks over seven innings.

But Liriano has been occasionally awful, too, failing to pitch five innings in six of his 23 starts.

"It's been hard for me to be consistent. Things aren't going the way I wanted, so I just have to go out there and keep pitching," he said. "I've been walking a lot of guys, getting behind the count too much. Like I said, kind of an up-and-down season."

Step back and you'll notice that this is the first time Liriano has been healthy in consecutive major league seasons. Though he pitched a full season in 2009, he struggled with a dead arm and went 5-13 with a 5.80 earned-run average. On Saturday, he evened this season's record at 9-9 and lowered his ERA to 4.85."