One was suspended. The other was injured. Both returned to the Twins lineup Tuesday.
"These are two guys and, we obviously have others, but two guys that our group has been waiting to see back out there," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.
And Michael Pineda and Byron Buxton both announced their returns with authority as the Twins ended their six-game losing streak by scrambling from an early deficit to beat the White Sox 3-2 at Target Field.
Pineda, the righthander who had to serve a 60-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy last season, gave up two runs in the first inning to one of the hottest offenses in baseball, but settled in to shut the White Sox down for the next five.
"After that [first inning], I come back and I say, 'We have to pitch right now. I want to execute good [pitches],' " Pineda said. "Yeah, keep grinding on the mound."
Buxton, who landed on the injured list because of inflammation in his left shoulder, made sure Pineda kept putting up zeros by jumping at the wall in the sixth inning to catch a drive by Edwin Encarnacion that seemed to be headed for the flower patch beyond the fence in left-center. At the plate one inning later, his 106-miles-per-hour single to left drove in Nelson Cruz with the eventual game-winning run.
After the ninth — when Matt Wisler notched the second save of his career and Caleb Thielbar got his first MLB victory since 2014 — Buxton was able to celebrate with his trademark fadeaway jumper with fellow outfielders.
"Very satisfied," Buxton said. "It was a big deal, obviously. We didn't have the road trip we wanted to, so coming back off of this, I wasn't trying to do too much. Just trying to get out there and get some energy going. Kind of like to think of myself as an energetic person, so once you get things rolling, that's when we start clicking."
Pineda had a loud first inning, giving up three line drives over 95 miles per hour, including Eloy Jimenez's 111.6-mph missile to left-center that drove in two runs.
"First thing, I tried to calm down my energy a little bit," Pineda said. "I'm very excited … and they're aggressive to me in the first inning. I miss spots, with my fastball especially, when they got double [from] Jimenez and that's it."
Pineda gave up two runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts over six innings, quieting the White Sox long enough for the Twins offense to retaliate.
Polanco scored in the fifth when Chicago first baseman Jose Abreu dropped a throw that would have been an inning-ending double play. White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel was removed after the fifth, and the Twins went after the Sox relievers.
Back-to-back pinch hitters tied the score at 2-2 in the sixth: Jake Cave tripled to right-center off Jimmy Cordero, then Luis Arraez doubled into the right-field corner. It was the first time the Twins had back-to-back, extra-base pinch hits since the final game of the 1992 season. And Cave belted the first pinch-hit triple in the AL this season.
With two outs and runners on first and second in the seventh, Buxton ripped an Evan Marshall fastball to left for a single, driving in Cruz. With key relievers unavailable, the Twins turned to Wisler in the ninth and he doubled his career saves, the other coming in 2016 with Atlanta. And a fired-up Twins team stopped their tailspin.
"There was a lot going on," Baldelli said. "Very competitive game throughout. But all that being said, everything in the dugout, everything out on the field pointed us in a good direction, and the enthusiasm was good throughout."
