OAKLAND, Calif. – Just when you’re ready to give up on Francisco Liriano, he pulls you back in.

His 2011 season has been one of highs and lows, and if it’s been mostly lows, the highs have been pretty spectacular. And the Twins left-hander believes he might be turning the corner after starting spring training with a shoulder problem that set him back more than anyone realized.

His nine-strikeout, one-walk performance in a 2-1 victory over 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night reminded everyone how good Liriano can be, and that his no-hitter May 3 at Chicago was not a last hurrah for a pitcher who has spent the past few years trying to recapture the brief magic of his rookie season.

Since then, he’s been good (14-10, 3.62 earned-run average last season) and occasionally ugly (5-13, 5.80 ERA in 2009). But Tuesday’s victory, coupled with the no-hitter, indicate Liriano, 27, is far from done. The win against one of the major leagues’ best pitchers snapped the Twins’ nine-game losing streak.

“We had to have a performance like that,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “With who he was matched up against, you had to have it; that guy is not going to give up anything. And (Liriano) stepped up and did it.”

It was the kind of performance the Twins will need much more of if they’re to rebound from their worst start since 1995 and defend their 2009 and 2010 Central Division crowns. They signed Liriano to a one-year, $4.3 million contract hoping he would help lead the way.

And if he can’t be spectacular every night, the Twins at least would like to see Liriano level off to a happy medium. In his three victories, he has given up eight hits in 22-1/3 innings and has a 1.20 ERA; in his five losses, he has surrendered 25 hits in 20-1/3 innings and has an 11.50 ERA.

The discrepancy is twofold, Liriano said. One, he started the season pitching to contact, that very Twins Way of approaching a game, and one contrary to his nature. Two, it’s been only recently that he has felt fully recovered from the sore shoulder with which he arrived at spring training in February.

“The first couple games, I was pitching different from the way I used to pitch – pitching to contact. That’s not the way I know how to pitch. And I wasn’t feeling that good pitching like that,” he said.

The sore shoulder, the result of overworking it during the offseason, set him back more than anyone knew. Trying to build stamina – until the no-hitter, he had never completed a professional start – he lifted barbells and threw a lot of pitches.

“It didn’t work,” he said.

Instead, it knocked him out the first week of spring training, and it has taken until recently to fully recover.

“It killed me,” he said. “When I started throwing in a game, I felt like I hadn’t been throwing in three months. So, it took me awhile to find my release point, everything. And my shoulder bothered me at that point, too. It wasn’t 100 percent. But I’m getting there.”

There is no more pain, he said, just occasional tightness, something that has led to some bad performances this season. Common perception is that Liriano has such great stuff that his major issue is mental; Liriano said it’s not that simple.

Mind and body can’t be separated.

“Sometimes, when my body doesn’t feel that well, I can’t control myself – I try to do too much, I put too much pressure on myself,” he said. “Instead of pitching with what I have that day, I try to create something that isn’t there. It’s mental and physical.”

After the no-hitter, Liriano took a brief pounding against Detroit, giving up four runs on four hits and three walks before leaving after three innings because of illness. He couldn’t catch his breath and felt weak.

That start, Gardenhire said, should be taken out of the equation.

“He threw a no-hitter, and then he got sick from the flu and couldn’t breathe on the mound,” he said. “That’s pretty much a time you want to take a pitcher out, when he can’t breathe. That’s not a bad outing; he was sick.”