P.J. Walters of the Minnesota Twins pitches in the first inning during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on May 17, 2012 in Detroit. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

DETROIT — Quick, someone find that game plan in which journeyman pitcher P.J. Walters saves the Twins’ bullpen from ruin, reliever Francisco Liriano delivers in the clutch and Drew Butera goes 3 for 4 to raise his batting average to .350.

Too far-fetched, you say? Well, seeing is believing, and don’t look now, but the Twins are on a winning streak after the unlikeliest of circumstances propelled them to a two-game series sweep of the slumping Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

Walters provided a quality start at precisely the right moment for Minnesota while Liriano, the erstwhile starter banished to the bullpen to rebuild his confidence, led another shutdown performance by relievers as the Twins defeated the Tigers 4-3 on Thursday, May 17.

They swiped two from the defending American League Central Division champs to win consecutive games for the first time since April 11-12. It was that kind of game on a sun-splashed afternoon in the Motor City.

Butera matched his career high of three hits. And Walters won his first start since Sept. 29, 2010, against Pittsburgh, when he was pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals.

See, just like the Twins designed it coming out of spring training.

“It’s about winning baseball games. This is a great team,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of the Tigers. “You come in here and win a couple ballgames and go toe to toe against them, it’s a good feeling. There’s some confidence coming through this clubhouse. It’s pretty

fun.”

The victory gives Minnesota (12-26) some momentum on its eight-game trip entering interleague play, with three games this weekend against the Brewers in Milwaukee. But Walters’ outing had more practical benefits.

The bullpen needed a break after starter Nick Blackburn left Wednesday’s win after two innings because of a strained quadriceps that landed him on the disabled list. Entering play Thursday, Twins starters had averaged only 5.24 innings per outing, and their longevity ranked 28th among 30 teams.

They needed Walters to eat innings, and he obliged, limiting the Tigers to four hits over 61/3. He gave up solo home runs to Brennan Boesch, Andy Dirks and Prince Fielder before allowing two runners to reach in the seventh.

“I don’t like to give up home runs, but the offense gave me some room to work with,” said Walters, 1-1 with a 3.65 earned-run average in two starts for the Twins. “They picked me up there those last couple innings.”

Walters yielded to Liriano, who made his second relief appearance since being demoted two weeks ago.

Liriano induced pinch-hitter Ramon Santiago to hit a comebacker, which he turned into an inning-ending double play. It was a minor success but a big deal for those trying to

The Minnesota Twins’ Francisco Liriano pitches in the seventh inning during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Twins defeated the Tigers 4-3. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

prevent Liriano from totally flaming out after going 0-5 with an ERA over 11.00.

“The young man can pitch,” Gardenhire said. “He has some success doing things like that in big situations; I think that’s going to boost his confidence, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We need outs. We need wins, and we need to get him going.”

In the eighth, Glen Perkins came in and walked the first two batters on nine pitches. After falling behind 2-0 to Fielder, Butera and pitching coach Rick Anderson visited the mound for some blunt talk.

“I was like, ‘Hey, no big deal. Just go right after him.’ That’s what Andy said,” Butera said. “What’s done is done. Let’s go after him right here. We’re a couple pitches away from getting out of the inning.”

Perkins settled down to strike out Fielder swinging and got Delmon Young to ground into another inning-ending double play.

“That was huge,” Butera said. “Our pitching staff from P.J. all the way through the bullpen was outstanding.”

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The Minnesota Twins couldn’t hold a late lead. Both starter Jason Marquis and reliever Matt Capps were culpable in coughing that up.

But yet again they left runners stranded on base at the most important times.

Cody Ross homered twice, tying the game with a two-run shot in the seventh inning and giving Boston the lead with two outs in the ninth to snap a five-game losing streak for the Red Sox in their 6-5 victory over Minnesota on Monday night.

Starter-turned-temporary-reliever Daniel Bard (1-2) recorded two critical outs in the eighth after the Twins put the leadoff batter on third. Alfredo Aceves picked up the save, his third in five tries, and all was right with the reeling Red Sox for at least one night.

Aceves gave up a one-out single and a high drive to the warning track in left-center to Trevor Plouffe, but Denard Span bounced back to the mound to end it.

“I knew I got it up in the air, and I was wishing it over the fence. But definitely didn’t think I absolutely got it,” Plouffe said. “It was one of those ones where it was going to be just barely over the fence, or he was going to catch it.”

The Twins are 8 for 47 with runners in scoring position over their last five games, an average of .170.

“We put ourselves in good situations and have opportunities, but lately we haven’t really been coming through. Teams that win games, they hit in those situations,” Plouffe said.

Ryan Sweeney misplayed Jamey Carroll’s single into a two-base error that put him at third with none out in that pivotal eighth, after the ball bounded down the right-field line, ricocheted off the padded facade of the seats in foul territory and skidded away.

But Franklin Morales got Joe Mauer to ground out weakly to first base, and Bard retired two of the three batters he faced sandwiched around an intentional walk to Justin Morneau. Josh Willingham greeted Bard with a sharp line drive, but it zipped straight at third baseman Kevin Youkilis for the second out.

Then Ross put the Red Sox in front with his drive off Capps (0-1), who threw a 92 mph, 0-1 fastball at the kneecaps, a tough one for anyone to hit, let alone far enough to reach seats to the opposite field.

“That’s where I wanted the pitch to go,” Capps said.

Jon Lester lasted seven innings for the Red Sox. Danny Valencia’s two-run homer, his first of the season, followed Ryan Doumit’s two-run double in a four-run fourth for the Twins. Then Plouffe drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, Span singled and a run scored when Carroll grounded into a double play.

Carroll got the Red Sox back for that in the sixth. With one out and runners at the corners, he dived to stop a grounder by David Ortiz up the middle and flipped to second baseman Plouffe from his stomach with one hand. Then Plouffe whirled around for a perfect relay throw to finish the double play.

“It seems like we’re always one big hit away. I know that I had an opportunity today with Carroll on third there in the eighth,” Doumit said: “We’re going through a pretty tough patch right now. But I think our offense is good enough that we’ll be able to turn this around.”

The Twins have more modest expectations than do the Red Sox for this season after last year’s 63-99 mess. Their starting pitching has emerged as a significant concern, if it wasn’t already this spring.

The rotation has a collective 2-9 record with a 6.46 ERA, last in the major leagues, with 114 hits allowed in 92 innings and only 53 strikeouts. Marquis settled in after a shaky start but gave away the 5-3 lead he had in the seventh.

“That’s what we want, seven innings out of these guys,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “This guy’s a veteran, a 200-inning guy. He wants the ball. He felt fine. He felt great. He made a terrible pitch to Cody. He had such a great sinker all night long. We trusted him.”

NOTES: Morneau played 1B for just the second game this year. He’s been the DH 14 times. … With sputtering LHP Francisco Liriano taken out of the rotation for his next turn, the Twins want him to relax. “Let him take a step back,” Gardenhire said. Liriano will start again May 1 after a couple of bullpen sessions and talks with pitching coach Rick Anderson. … Willingham will miss Wednesday’s game to be with his wife, who is about to have a baby. He could be gone through Friday, but the Twins will put him on paternity leave and be able to call up a minor league replacement while he’s away.

Ross, who signed with Boston as a free agent in the offseason, cranked a two-run homer to tie the game 5-5 in the seventh, then added a solo shot in the ninth off Matt Capps (0-1). It was the eighth career multi-homer game for Ross.

Daniel Bard (1-2) got the win for Boston, pitching out of a jam in the eighth. Alfredo Aceves pitched the ninth inning for his third save of the year, surrendering only a one-out single to Chris Parmelee.

The Twins have lost three in a row.

Trailing by two in the seventh, the Red Sox pulled even when Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled, then Ross lifted a long home run into the second deck in left field.

Jon Lester started and went seven innings for Boston, but he is still looking for his first win of the season. He gave up five runs on six hits and four walks, striking out four.

The Twins looked to be on the brink of taking the lead in the eighth when Jamey Carroll led off with a single into the right field corner. Ryan Sweeney misplayed the ball for a two-base error, and Carroll ended up on third with no outs. But Franklin Morales got Joe Mauer to bounce out, then gave way to Bard. Josh Willingham lined out, and Bard intentionally walked Justin Morneau before getting Ryan Doumit to pop out to shortstop, ending the threat.

Jason Marquis started for Minnesota and gave up five runs in 6 1/3 innings.

The Red Sox got on the board early, as leadoff hitter Mike Aviles singled, advanced to third on a single by Dustin Pedroia and scored on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Gonzalez. After David Ortiz singled and Kevin Youkilis reached on a fielder’s choice in the second, Jarrod Saltalamacchia plopped his second homer of the season into the front row of the right field seats, giving Boston a 3-0 lead.

Lester cruised through the first three innings, but he hit a snag with one out in the fourth. Mauer’s single was followed by a Willingham walk. After Lester struck out Morneau, Doumit doubled to score Mauer and Willingham. Three pitches later, Danny Valencia blasted his first homer of the season into the Red Sox bullpen in deep left-center field, giving Minnesota a 4-3 lead.

An inning later, Carroll bounced into the Twins’ big-league-leading 19th double play of the season, but it brought in a run. Trevor Plouffe scored from third base, putting the Twins up 5-3.

NOTES: Center fielder Marlon Byrd made his Red Sox debut after coming to Boston in a trade with the Cubs on Saturday night. … Twins catcher Mauer threw out Pedroia on an attempted steal of second base in the first inning. Previously, runners had been 10-for-10 when attempting to run on Mauer this season. … Red Sox utility infielder Nick Punto made his return to Target Field but did not play. Punto spent seven seasons with the Twins.

Manager Bobby Valentine of the Boston Red Sox. (Getty Images: Elsa)

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Boston manager Bobby Valentine was Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s manager when the Twins infielder was becoming an all-star in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. So when Nishioka signed to play in the majors, the two met to discuss the adjustments ahead.

One of them, Valentine warned, was learning to turn a double play in the majors.

“I came to Fort Myers last year to have dinner with him to tell him they’re going to try to break his legs, and (I) tried to show him how to get out of the way, because he didn’t do that in Japan,” Valentine said. “He played second base for me the first year….I actually got up to show him where he had to be on that double play, because in Japan you don’t have to worry about the

inside slide, only the outside slide. When a guy comes inside and rolls, he had to be out of the way.

“He gave me the old ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah; work harder, work harder. I understand, I understand,’ and he often did when he played for me.”

In the second series of his first major league season, Nishioka had his left leg fractured by the Yankees’ Nick Swisher, who slid hard to break up a double play.

“I had him as a baby in Japan,” said Valentine, who managed Nishioka’s Chiba Lotte club. “I had him when he was one of the worst players on the field, and I had him when he was one of the best players on the field. And sometimes it was within the same season.”

Surgery for Zumaya

Reliever Joel Zumaya, 27, told the Twins he isn’t ready

to retire and will have surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, an injury suffered Feb. 25 while pitching to teammates at the Lee County Sports Complex.

Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony said he talked with Zumaya’s agent, Don Mitchell, on Saturday and was told: “After thinking about it, Joel has decided he’s going to have the surgery.”

The procedure will be done by Dr. James Andrews, who did Zumaya’s second elbow surgery, and will be paid for by the

Twins. Zumaya is still under contract to Minnesota, which will pay him $400,000 on a one-year, $850,000 contract he signed in January. Antony said it remains unclear whether Zumaya will rehabilitate the elbow with Minnesota.

“It’s a little bit of a trickier situation in that he’s going to miss the whole year; we know that. And he’s going to be a free agent after this year,” Antony said. “So it’s going to be a situation where Joel’s probably going to be able to decide or determine what he wants to do as far as rehab goes, and where he’s most comfortable. We’ll talk through it with him and his agent and figure out what’s the best course.”

As for what the Twins will do with Zumaya’s spot on the 40-man roster, that also remains to be seen,

though they probably will place him on the 60-day disabled list.

“We haven’t figured all that stuff out yet, to be honest with you,” Antony said.

Ends with a bang

Infielder Ray Chang was having a terrific day Sunday before breaking up a double play in the seventh inning of Minnesota’s 8-3 split-squad loss to the Red Sox at jetBlue Park. He was 1 for 1 with two walks, a run scored and a stolen base, plus he made a terrific diving stab for an out that robbed Will Middlebrooks of a hit in the third inning.

Chang was taken from the game after his seventh-inning collision but said afterward he was OK. “Just got a knee in the jaw,” he said.

Briefly

Attendance for the first official game at jetBlue Park was 8,886. The Red Sox moved

from Fort Myers proper to what is officially unincorporated Lee County. The Sox hosted Boston College on Saturday night.