MINNEAPOLIS -- Big Mike showed that his effective season debut was no fluke.

The Twins waited until September for Michael Pineda to return to a banged-up starting rotation and give some rest to a heavily used bullpen, and he’s made it worth every bit of that wait. After throwing six strong innings in his first start off the restricted list last Tuesday, he outdid himself with seven effective frames on Monday afternoon against the Tigers, pitching Minnesota to a 6-2 victory and its fourth win in the five-game series against Detroit.

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In only his second start, Pineda already did what no other Twins starter save Kenta Maeda has been able to do in 2020: He pitched into the seventh inning. Maeda and Pineda have each completed seven innings once apiece, and Pineda’s longevity was particularly important for a bullpen that already navigated one seven-inning doubleheader earlier in the series and faces another in St. Louis on Tuesday.

"I'm feeling very proud of myself because that's what we want, just trying to work longer in the game and give everything I've got every five to six days, and especially today, because we have a doubleheader tomorrow and it's a tough doubleheader for relievers," Pineda said. "We try to keep it up in the game to get some rest for the relievers. That's my focus."

Pineda allowed two runs and scattered only three hits over those seven frames, with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli chose to stick with Pineda in a seventh-inning jam despite a soaring pitch count and multiple baserunners, and the big right-hander rewarded him with a strikeout of Austin Romine on his 104th pitch that concluded his outing.

"He had to work hard," Baldelli said. "He had to dig down and make some pitches to get out of that inning, and when I tell you I'm sure it was hard to even get a grip on the ball, that's what it was. Did Big Mike come in and complain at all or look uncomfortable out on the mound? Nothing. Absolutely none of that. He just continued to pitch. He continues to do his job, and he did a great job."

Pineda got all the help he needed from Eddie Rosario and rookie catcher Ryan Jeffers. Rosario made up for his up-and-down performance in Sunday’s game with a bases-clearing double down the first-base line in the third inning. That followed Jeffers’ first career homer, an estimated 437-foot dinger that landed in the center-field batter’s eye. Jeffers tacked on an RBI single in the fourth for the first multi-RBI game of his career.

Byron Buxton tacked on an upper-deck solo shot in the eighth, his sixth homer of the season.

If Pineda can keep this up, it should provide a huge boon to the Twins’ chances in the playoffs, as the club had been lacking a consistent starter alongside Maeda and Randy Dobnak in the early stages of the season. José Berríos' encouraging performance of late should also help.

In either case, Pineda’s early 2020 dominance is a glimpse of what the Twins missed down the stretch last season, when they lacked an experienced third starter to pair with Berríos and Jake Odorizzi in the American League Division Series. That could have been Pineda, who had a 3.46 ERA with 118 strikeouts in 117 innings in 20 starts from May to September before he began serving his 60-game suspension following a positive test for a banned diuretic.

Pineda has the chance to make up for lost time with a strong stretch run in 2020. So far, so good.

"I'm sure that is something that bothered Mike in some ways," Baldelli said. "He was a guy that got us into a position where we were playing playoff baseball, the baseball that matters at the end of the year and maybe give yourself an opportunity to play in a World Series, and he was as big of a part of getting us to that spot as well as anyone on that team last year.

"I'm sure it's his goal to continue throwing the way he's throwing the ball right now, continue doing a good job, making adjustments, all the things he always does. But I would bet that other piece of it is also on his mind, where it should be. And the way he's throwing the ball right now makes you feel good about sending him out there regardless of what kind of game it is."