DETROIT >> The Twins spent the month of June looking for some stability from their starting rotation after watching a pair of pitchers go down with injuries. It’s nearly the end of the month but finally, for three straight games at least, they seem to have found some.

Joe Ryan went out and dealt six scoreless innings on Wednesday. Simeon Woods Richardson followed with five zeros of his own on Thursday. And on Friday, after the Twins decided to start David Festa rather than use an opener, the lanky righty tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings, lifting the Twins to a 4-1 win over the first-place Detroit Tigers in the series opener at Comerica Park.

“I feel like it’s almost contagious,” Festa said. “When it started with Joe and then Sim, watching those guys go out and do their thing, like they often do, it makes you want to do good. … We’re just trying to stack good outings on good outings.”

Festa, who gave up eight runs last time out and entered the day with a bloated 6.39 earned-run average, allowed just two hits in his start. The second one was the last pitch he threw Friday night in one of his longest outings of his career. Festa struck out six batters in his start and walked none, after walking three in each of his last two games.

“He was on his game and he didn’t let up at any point,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “(He) was very strong the entire time he was on the mound. It was exactly what we were looking for from him.”

Festa briefly ran into trouble in the second inning, hitting a batter and later allowing a single, but instead of letting the inning get away from him, he was able to induce a groundball to come away unscathed.

The starter received some run support in the fourth inning when Matt Wallner and Brooks Lee hit back-to-back two-out doubles. That was one of two runs Lee would drive in in a game that was strong for him both offensively and defensively.

“You’re seeing what he’s capable of,” Baldelli said.

The Twins (40-42) scored their second run of the night in the fifth when Byron Buxton smacked a pitch over the middle of the plate out to left field for his team-leading 18th home run of the season.

Buxton scored the Twins’ fourth run of the day, as well, drawing a walk in the seventh inning and then advancing to second on a stolen base. After Trevor Larnach’s groundball moved him over, Buxton raced home to score when Willi Castro laid down a perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt.

“They gave me the sign to go bunt and I (felt) confident and got it down,” Castro said.

Detroit (51-32) scored one run in the loss in the eighth inning when reliever Griffin Jax worked his way into and out of a jam in the eighth inning, stranding a pair of runners in coring position.

But otherwise, the Tigers were were held quiet, marking the third straight game that Twins pitchers have given up one or fewer runs.

“We know that we have a very good, talented pitching staff and I think they just want to show that more than anything else,” Baldelli said. “Setting everything aside, it’s like ‘We’re good. This is what we can do. Here we are and now let me go show you.’ Really, we’ve had a few now in a row of not just good but excellent outings from our guys, and the bullpens continued to do the job, too.”