In 2006, his rookie season, it was easy to like Francisco Liriano. The Dominican Republic native, 22 years old, pitched for the Minnesota Twins and reeled off a 12-3 record and 2.16 earned run average in 16 starts and 12 relief appearances. I didn’t just like Liriano. I really liked him.

That is, I thought he had a great future, and so did the Twins. But neither they nor I suspected that Liriano’s glowing future would be with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nor did anyone have any reason to think how instrumental Liriano would be in the Pirates ending the major league all-sports record 20 successive losing seasons.

Liriano, who signed as a free agent last winter, has become the leader of the Pittsburgh pitching staff, which has become one of the best staffs in the National League, allowing the fewest runs and home runs.

The left-handed Liriano has a 16-7 record and a 2.92 earned run average. Despite having started only 23 games, seven fewer than the league leaders, Liriano is second in the league in wins to Washington’s Jordan Zimmerman, who has 17, and if he had pitched two more innings, he would qualify for the league leaders in e.r.a. and would be sixth.

Subtract one start, against Colorado last month, on which Liriano gave up 10 earned runs in 2 1/3 innings, and Liriano’s e.r.a. would be 1.93, which would be second to Clayton Kershaw’s 1.92.

But Liriano and the Pirates don’t need ifs and maybes to demonstrate the high caliber of their play this season. And it might have all started last winter when the Pirates signed Liriano, who as a free agent was available to all 30 teams.

It would not have been possible to foresee the pitcher’s path to that juncture. As a rookie with the Twins, Liriano began his major league career like all pitchers did with Minnesota.

The Twins had a practice of starting their young pitchers in the bullpen, gradually developing them into starters. Johan Santana, for example, didn’t become a full-fledged starter in the major leagues until his fifth season.

In 2006 Liriano relieved in 12 games and made his first start May 19. In 16 starts he registered an 11-3 record and 1.92 e.r.a., holding opposing batters to a .181 batting average.

But Liriano’s career veered sharply to the right. After that highly impressive his rookie season was over, Liriano had an elbow operation (ligament transplant). He didn’t pitch in 2007 and came back slowly in 2008. In fact, in the next three and two-thirds seasons, he wasn’t the pitcher he had been in 2006.

His tenure with the Twins ended a year ago July 28 with a 50-52 record when Minnesota traded him to the Chicago White Sox. He failed to find sudden success in his new home, where he compiled a 3-2 record and a 5.40 e.r.a. in 11 starts and one relief appearance.

None of those developments, however, discouraged the Pirates from signing Liriano when he became a free agent.

“Our scouts saw an above average major league pitching package,” Neal Huntington,” the Pirates’ general manager, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “They loved his stuff. Our analysts saw some indications that there were similar to what we saw in Burnett the year before, the ability to strike out hitters and get ground balls. We liked his chances. Maybe we could do something. The upside potential was worth the risk.”

Ray Searage, the team’s pitching coach, had worked something close to a miracle with A.J. Burnett after the Pirates acquitted him from the Yankees with one year left on his 5-year, $82.5 million contract. In four years with New York, Burnett had a 34-35 record. In his first year with the Pirates, he had a 16-10 record.

The Pirates agreed to sign Liriano for two years at $12.75 million, but the ink was barely dry on the contract when Liriano broke his right arm in a domestic mishap. The Pirates could have torn up the contract and considered doing that, but they liked what they had seen.

“It was a broken non-throwing arm and an injury that should heal,” Huntington said, explaining the team’s decision to work out a way to retain Liriano, just not at the original price. “We worked with his agent and Francisco to do something. The factors that attracted us to him initially were still there so how could we mitigate the risk.”

It took time to work out, but the two sides agreed to a one-year contract with a guaranteed $1 million salary plus bonuses totaling $3.75 million based on time he does not spend on the disabled list linked to the broken arm.

The contract also has an option for a second year that can automatically vest depending on time Liriano doesn’t spend on the disabled list, again linked to the broken arm. The salary could be $5 million, $6 million or $8 million, and if it’s either of the first two, Liriano could earn bonuses based on the disabled list element of the first year.

The option and the bonus provisions would enable the pitcher to earn the $12.75 million the original contract provided.

Liriano’s season began May 11, and he has started regularly since. Oddly, he has gained a decision in each of his 23 starts, making him the first Pittsburgh pitcher to make that many starts with a decision in each start since Larry French did it in his first 24 starts in 1930.

The Pirates have also noted that Liriano’s 16 wins are the most for a Pittsburgh left-hander since John Smiley and Zane Smith won that many games in 1991.

In addition, in going over Liriano’s record, I saw that he has started seven games in which he has pitched at least seven innings and allowed no runs. Elias Sports Bureau says he has been eclipsed in that achievement by only Kershaw (Dodgers) and Hiroki Kuroda (Yankees), each of whom has had eight such starts.

“He deserves all the credit in the world,” Huntington said. “He’s been open to our coaches, open to making adjustments, he’s a great teammate and a great competitor.”

And, of course, Pittsburgh fans will long remember and revere Liriano for the major role he has played in ending the streak. The Pirates couldn’t have done it without him.

The Pirates incidentally have mainly stuck to their position that they were not focused on ending the streak. “We’ve had others things we wanted to accomplish,” Huntington said.

But the general manager also acknowledged, “I have come to appreciate the feelings of the people who have lived through the 20 years.”