ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – For years, Francisco Liriano fought to reclaim his career from arm injuries. Now, it has become clear, whatever he’s battling is in his head.

The Twins left-hander feels great, he said, and is throwing harder than he has in a while, reaching 95 mph in his last start at Yankee Stadium. His sinker is moving more than ever, and his slider is as deceptive as ever.

Yet Liriano enters his start Sunday, April 22, against the Tampa Bay Rays with an 0-2 record and 11.91 earned-run average.

“I think it’s location and emotion, a little bit of both,” Liriano said.

But it’s a chicken-and-egg thing for the Twins, who are waiting for their most talented pitcher to find a groove and become the staff ace they have

Twins starter Francisco Liriano wipes his brow after giving up five runs in five hits to the Angels in the second inning at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Thursday April 12, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

expected him to become since he burst onto the scene with a 12-3 record and 2.16 earned-run average as a rookie in 2006.

Shoulder and elbow problems have been a factor; he had season-ending ligament-replacement surgery as a rookie and missed all of 2007. And Liriano doesn’t throw as hard as he used to, but he still has stuff most players would kill for. Pitching coach Rick Anderson has reported so many eye-opening bullpen sessions that it has become something of a running joke – after an “great ‘pen,” Liriano inevitably struggles in a game. But Anderson insists it’s no joke.

“I’m telling you,” he said. “I wish you guys could come down there and see it.”

So what’s the problem?

“Now I’m just, I guess, putting too much pressure on

myself and trying to do too much,” Liriano said. “Thinking too much, I think. I do feel like I need to do a better job, be more consistent. Like they say, I’ve got good stuff; I need to go out there and throw seven good innings. I need to be more consistent, a better pitcher.”

Yes, a better pitcher. That’s all the Twins are looking for, and, frankly, time is running out. Liriano is 28 now and barring a contract extension will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

“We’re not asking for an epiphany,” general manager Terry Ryan said. “We’re asking him to give us the ability to win a game.”

When Liriano went 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA in 2010, it appeared he had finally found a sort of peace. Maybe he wasn’t the wunderkind he was in 2006, but it was clear he could be a top-line major league pitcher. Then came 2011, when he went 9-10 with a 5.09 ERA. He threw a no-hitter against the White Sox in May but never won more than two games in a row and, more troubling, failed to pitch out of the fourth inning six times.

Liriano was terrific this spring (2-1, 2.33 ERA and just five walks in 27 innings) but seemed to lose everything he had found. In three starts this season, he has allowed 22 hits and nine walks in 11-1/3 innings and averaged less than four innings. As Ryan said, Liriano “makes his own trouble,” falling behind in counts early and eventually being forced to throw a fastball over the plate.

Right now, Anderson said, he’s throwing too many two-seam fastballs, which he’s having trouble corralling. But because it moves so much, he feels better throwing it. When hitters lay off, he’s in trouble. This time it’s not an arm problem, and it is frustrating for everyone.

“I know he’s healthy. He feels good,” Ryan said. “But you know, we know, everybody knows: He needs to do a better job than that.”

Liriano is candid about the games he plays in his head, even in his second language, English. He can zip through spring training, conquering his mechanics and mixing his pitches and locating his fastballs. He can amaze his pitching coach and manager in a bullpen session. But when he takes the mound for a major league game, the pressure already has begun.

“To be honest, yeah,” he said. “I feel like I’m not doing my job at all. Everybody’s counting on me, just, I don’t do my job. I think about that a lot, and sometimes it bothers me. Not all the time, but when I think about it, it does.”

After blowing a 3-1 lead and leaving an 8-3 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday, Liriano had a heart-to-heart at Yankee Stadium with manager Ron Gardenhire, whose night was cut similarly short by his 61st major league ejection.

“He wants to do well. And the young man wants to get people out,” Gardenhire said. “You could tell he felt like he was letting the team down. That’s a good thing, but it’s also because he cares about this baseball team – and it’s also something I want him to get past. You have a job to do, you go out you get it done or you don’t get it done. You have to stay on an even keel here. I don’t want the weight of the world on his shoulders. I want him to relax. I think he can do better if he can do that.”

Can he?

“I’ve got the stuff to get people out when I’m spinning it. That said, sometimes I try to be too perfect, I miss my spot a little bit,” Liriano said. “Sometimes they know when I throw a sinker away it’s going to be down, so they’re probably going to take it. I feel that way sometimes. But, yeah, if I can locate my fastball, everything could change.”

Sunday is the first start in the rest of his career.

Follow John Shipley at twitter.com/ShipleyKid.

Minnesota Twins infielder Luke Hughes, who had a cortisone shot in his sprained right shoulder last week, hit soft toss today and is on pace to take his first live batting practice Thursday.

“The first couple, I was tentative, but after that I started to cut it loose and felt good,” he said. “No complaints at all.”

He also threw up to 60 feet, which will be expanded to 90 feet Thursday. Until now, he had spent most of his time taking infield drills and rehabbing the shoulder, which was injured earlier this month in the Australian Winter League playoffs.

Hughes, 27, is fighting for one of two utility infield roles, but said he doesn’t feel behind his teammates.

“Definitely not,” he said. “I finished up like four weeks ago in Australia after I got hurt, so I got some time there and like 60 or 70 at-bats (he hit .344), which was good. So I don’t feel too far behind. So as long as everything continues to go this way, I’ll be happy.”

Briefly

The Twins will play a B-squad game against the Boston Red Sox at 1 p.m. Thursday. Admission and parking are free. The Twins will use nine pitchers in nine innings: Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Liam Hendriks, Jeff Manship, Jason Bulger, Carlos Gutierrez, Tyler Robertson, Brendan Wise and Deolis Guerra. The lineup will be J.R. Towles C, Ray Chang 3B, Brian Dozier SS, Pedro Florimon 2B, Aaron Bates 1B, Brian Dinkelman DH, Ben Revere LF, Joe Benson CF and Rene Tosoni RF. … General manager Terry Ryan said there is no news

regarding reliever Joel Zumaya, who tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow Saturday and is mulling whether to have surgery or, perhaps, retire.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – When Danny Valencia assesses his 2011 season, he reveals a perfect distillation of what makes him Danny Valencia.

“I’m better than that,” he said.

While an acknowledgment of a sophomore slump, it’s also a bold declaration of his strength and skill as a baseball player. It’s part humility but mostly hubris – and all Danny Valencia.

Say what you will about the kid who played college ball and majored in confidence at Miami (Fla.), he has made himself a major league baseball player. Entering just his second full major league season, Valencia is hardly surrounded by predators ready to swoop in and take his job at spring training.

“There are plenty of people that could play third base,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, “but not as good as Danny should be able to; that’s the key.”

The Twins brought in Sean Burroughs but mostly to fill in defensively and give the lineup some good at-bats. Luke Hughes has been a steady fielder and has shown some pop, but his batting average – .223 last season – hasn’t inspired management to project him beyond a utility role. Valencia, on the other hand, has shown glimpses of major league longevity.

“He’s got a lot of talent. I think that’s the apparent visual of him,” general manager Terry Ryan said. “He can do everything most third basemen that make all-star teams can do. He can hit it a long way, he can really throw and he’s a better runner than you’d think.”

As a rookie in 2010, he turned a June

call-up into a full-time job by hitting .311 with 40 runs batted in in 85 games and fielding his position. He had a down year all around last season, earning public scrutiny from Gardenhire for his defensive shortcomings while watching his average (.246) and on-base percentage (.294) drop precipitously. Still, he led the Twins in games (154) and RBIs (72).

Valencia, 27, went home for the offseason knowing he can be better in 2012. Rather than work out in Miami with a group that included major

Minnesota Twins throws home after fielding a ground ball during spring training at Lee County Sports Complex in Fort Myers, Florida, Tuesday, February 28, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

leaguers such as Alex Rodriguez, he stayed home in Boca Raton and worked with a trainer.

The results are evident. Valencia is noticeably bigger, almost 220 pounds, yet still lean, and his defense already is receiving positive notices from the manager.

Last year, Valencia threw away a lot of at-bats – he walked only 40 times in 608 plate appearances – and became less steady at third; after six errors in 80 starts as a rookie, he was charged with 18 in 146 starts in 2011.

“I hold myself to high standards,” he said. “Obviously, I feel a little disappointed with last year, mainly my on-base percentage – that really bothers me, looking back at it. It’s really unacceptable. I’ve got to take my walks when I can and swing at better pitches and do a better job of controlling the strike zone.”

Though he finished with a .246 batting average, he hit well in the clutch, .471 with the bases loaded (8 for 17) and .444 with runners on second and third (4 for 9).

“He should hit for a higher average, but I thought he was pretty good,” Gardenhire said. “I don’t have all the numbers to prove it, but as far as driving in big runs for us, he was one of our better ones last year. He came up with a lot of big hits for us that I remember. Those things stick in your mind.”

They also help smooth over personality clashes. Notably confident – cocky, to some – Valencia has irritated a few teammates. As a rookie, he led the team in kangaroo court fines, joking last offseason that he financed the team party by himself. A common complaint was that he didn’t know his place in the hierarchy of a major league clubhouse.

For that, he is unapologetic.

“I have a personality,” Valencia said. “They can’t take that away from me.”

But he also had a tendency to take his at-bats onto the field, which is a nice way to say he cared more about hitting than defense, a no-no in Minnesota. Gardenhire, in fact, accused him of simply not paying attention at times at third base.

“Danny had things that he knew he needed to improve on, and as I told you at the end of last year, Danny made a lot of improvement toward the end of last year,” Gardenhire said. “I thought he was handling himself a lot better; a lot of guys would make the same statement. He wasn’t trying to be out there all the time; he wasn’t trying to be in Danny World. He was fitting in really nicely. I thought he made a great effort toward the end of last year. He worked hard on his defense. He was working hard.

“Do we all have opportunities to be better people? Every one of us in here can all be better at something, and Danny’s been working at it.”

If Valencia has changed the way he behaves behind closed doors, it’s not evident in public. He’s still smiling and chatting with fans, teammates and coaches – and swinging for the fences in batting practice. When he was hit by a Francisco Liriano fastball in BP on Tuesday, he ran out of the cage and yelled at the pitcher, “It’ll take more than that to destroy this body!”

“I’m a guy who likes to be loose, but I work hard,” Valencia said. “I feel like I get along with everybody. I like to keep it fun in here. We don’t have too many guys here who have big personalities. I think it’s a good thing; it changes things up. You don’t want to get too dull and boring.”

Then Valencia smiles with more than a hint of mischief and says, “It’s nice to brighten people’s days, you know?”

Follow John Shipley at twitter.com/shipleykid