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DET@OAK: Fister pitches six innings of one-run ball

The first two months of the 2012 season haven't been very kind to Tigers right-hander Doug Fister.

In his first start on April 7, he strained his right side in the fourth inning against the Red Sox and missed exactly a month on the disabled list.

In his two outings since coming off the DL, Fister has allowed one earned run over 13 innings, but he has no wins to show for it.

The Tigers will try to reverse the 28-year-old's fortunes Thursday, when they meet the Twins in the finale of the short two-game series.

Fister shut out the Mariners through seven innings on four hits May 7, but the Tigers ended up falling, 3-2, when Octavio Dotel blew the save in the ninth, surrendering three runs.

In his last start, Fister gave up an early run in the first inning against the Athletics, but settled down and threw five scoreless innings afterwards. The Tigers, however, couldn't muster up any run support and lost, 3-1.

"I struggled through the first couple [innings], couldn't find a release point, had a little rough timing," Fister said after the game. "It finally clicked, but I've just got some work to do before my next outing."

Opposing Fister on Thursday will be another hard-luck pitcher in Twins righty P.J. Walters.

After being called up from Triple-A Rochester, Walters made his season debut Saturday against his former team, the Blue Jays.

The 27-year-old tossed four scoreless innings to open the game, but Toronto put two runs on the board in the next two frames to spoil Walters' day. The Twins only provided one run of support and fell, 2-1.

"Walters threw the ball very good," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "I think hitters had a pretty tough time in just the overall view of the baseball. But he attacked the zone. I thought he used his changeup very well to both righties and lefties, and he gave us everything we could handle through the six innings he pitched."

Twins: Morneau plays again
Justin Morneau was activated from the disabled list and returned to the Twins' lineup Wednesday night after being sidelined since May 1 with a sore left wrist.

Morneau batted fifth, played first and collected a hit.

"It'll be easier to get back in the flow of the game [playing first] than it will be DHing," Morneau said. "It's almost like pinch-hitting four times. It's hard to stay in the flow of the game. And without playing for 15 days, I think it would be difficult."

Tigers: Valverde on the shelf
Jose Valverde is expected to miss the next couple days with what was diagnosed as a lower back strain.

Valverde said he underwent an MRI on Tuesday, and the results came back fine. The Tigers have listed him as day to day, but Valverde doesn't believe it'll be any more than a couple days.

"I don't want to be out for two months [with an aggravation]," Valverde said. "I'll take a couple days and be ready for Pittsburgh [this weekend]."

Manager Jim Leyland said setup man Joaquin Benoit will "probably be" the closer.

Worth noting
• The Twins are 4-18 in their last 22 games against the Tigers. Over that span, they have been outscored 142-93.

• Austin Jackson has not committed an error over his last 108 games, but he left Wednesday after four innings with a mild abdominal strain and is day to day.

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