FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -Francisco Liriano is getting stronger with each spring training start.

Liriano struck out five in four perfect innings to help the Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-0 on Sunday.

Liriano opened the spring with a shaky start against the New York Yankees, allowing three runs - two earned - and four hits over two innings. But he followed with three scoreless innings against Pittsburgh and dominated against Baltimore.

Advertisement

``Each time, it gets better,' Liriano said. ``All my pitches were working today.'

Liriano and manager Ron Gardenhire said he was throwing his changeup more, a pitch he began using after the surgery. He combined with five relievers on a one-hitter.

``He was pretty good,' Gardenhire said. ``Some pretty good hitters on their side. The ball was darting all over the place.'

Liriano got off to a rocky start last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. The left-hander was in Triple-A from mid-April to the beginning of August, then came back and went 6-1 with a 2.74 ERA.

Gardenhire wasn't surprised his team nearly no-hit the Orioles, though Minnesota did commit two errors.

``You throw the ball over the plate, our defense played pretty good; we made some errors on this rough field,' Gardenhire said. ``When you throw the ball over, you've got a chance.'

Liriano was followed by Joe Nathan, who withdrew from the World Baseball Classic with a sore shoulder. Nathan, who hadn't pitched since Feb. 25 and rarely takes the mound in spring road games, threw a perfect fifth inning.

``No discomfort at all,' Nathan said. ``More important - I didn't think about it all.'

Philip Humber, Armando Gabino, Anthony Swarzak and Bobby Keppel each got three outs for the Twins.

Oscar Salazar reached on an error with two outs in the seventh for Baltimore's first baserunner. Matt Wieters singled off Keppel leading off the ninth for the Orioles' only hit.

Wieters, who's batting .471 this spring, said he was aware of the no-hit possibility.

``You could see the scoreboard, but I think every at-bat, you go up there thinking about a hit,' Wieters said.

Baltimore's Danys Baez, who had Tommy John surgery in 2007, allowed just one hit in 3 2-3 scoreless innings.