Once again, it was the Johan Santana Show. From the very beginning, the Devil Rays didn't have a prayer, as he retired the first 10 batters. In his 2-hit, eight-inning outing, Santana (17-5, 2.84 ERA) struck out 12 men (207 on the season) and walked one. He was absolutely electric in Tuesday night's 8-0 victory, earning his 17th win of the season, throwing 95 pitches - 70 of which were strikes. This is something Twins fans around the nation have become accustomed to seeing.
Minnesota started the scoring in the fourth inning, when Michael Cuddyer (2 for 4) hit a home run to left field. Oh wait. "That wasn't a home run!" says third base umprire Tim Tschida. The ball was caught by a young man in the first row, but he apparently doesn't know how to use his glove, cause it fell out and bounced off the wall. So, Cuddyer was in with a double. Ron Gardenhire flipped out and got tossed, standing up for his boy. Crappy, yet we sensed a reckoning within the dugout. I'm not exactly sure why, but the young man was removed from the stadium by a security officer. Bummer.
So with Gardy watching from afar, Justin Morneau (2 for 5) reached on a triple to score Cuddy, giving Minnesota the first run of the game. Torii Hunter then flied out to center, and after a Rondell White intentional walk, Jason Tyner doubled on a liner to left, scoring Morneau and moving Rondell to third. Then Jason Bartlett (2 for 3) came up to the plate with that piranha look in his eye, and smashed a sacrifice fly to center, scoring White. That ended the runs for the inning, with the Twins taking a 3-0 lead.
Delmon Young ruined Johan's no-no in the fifth with a double to center, but nothing ever came of it, cause everyone else was ice cold. After a few more Santana Ks, the Twins tacked on a few more runs. In the seventh, Newbie Juan Salas (18.00 ERA) replaced Jae Seo (3-10, 4.96 ERA), who allowed those 3 runs on 8 hits with a walk. With two outs in the inning, Joe Mauer walked and scored on a Cuddyer double. The Canadian Crusher then tripled on a ball hit well into the left-field corner, bringing his RBI count to 114. Next, Torii reached second on yet another Tampa Bay fielding error, with Morneau skipping home.
Minnesota started the scoring in the fourth inning, when Michael Cuddyer (2 for 4) hit a home run to left field. Oh wait. "That wasn't a home run!" says third base umprire Tim Tschida. The ball was caught by a young man in the first row, but he apparently doesn't know how to use his glove, cause it fell out and bounced off the wall. So, Cuddyer was in with a double. Ron Gardenhire flipped out and got tossed, standing up for his boy. Crappy, yet we sensed a reckoning within the dugout. I'm not exactly sure why, but the young man was removed from the stadium by a security officer. Bummer.So with Gardy watching from afar, Justin Morneau (2 for 5) reached on a triple to score Cuddy, giving Minnesota the first run of the game. Torii Hunter then flied out to center, and after a Rondell White intentional walk, Jason Tyner doubled on a liner to left, scoring Morneau and moving Rondell to third. Then Jason Bartlett (2 for 3) came up to the plate with that piranha look in his eye, and smashed a sacrifice fly to center, scoring White. That ended the runs for the inning, with the Twins taking a 3-0 lead.
Delmon Young ruined Johan's no-no in the fifth with a double to center, but nothing ever came of it, cause everyone else was ice cold. After a few more Santana Ks, the Twins tacked on a few more runs. In the seventh, Newbie Juan Salas (18.00 ERA) replaced Jae Seo (3-10, 4.96 ERA), who allowed those 3 runs on 8 hits with a walk. With two outs in the inning, Joe Mauer walked and scored on a Cuddyer double. The Canadian Crusher then tripled on a ball hit well into the left-field corner, bringing his RBI count to 114. Next, Torii reached second on yet another Tampa Bay fielding error, with Morneau skipping home.
As told by Dick and Coomdog...
That's a dozen, cousin.
A pitching change to Edwin Jackson in the eighth would allow a Bartlett single and a Luis Castillo walk, Mauer doubled on a liner for 2 RBIs. That makes 30 doubles on the year for our batting champ. Those eight runs would top off the game. Matt Guerrier (2.92 ERA) pitched the ninth allowing 1 hit, and that as they say, is history.
With Chicago's 1-0 loss to Boston and Detroit's 4-3 loss to Seattle, the Twins leap to 1.5 games ahead in the Wild Card Race and just 4 games behind in the the Division!
VS. 
Minnesota will attempt a much-needed series sweep with Carlos Silva (8-13, 6.56 ERA) on the hill against Jason Hammel (0-2. 6.86 ERA) and the D'Rays in Wednesday's series finale at Tropicana Field.
Monday, the Twins recalled Josh Rabe (yay!) from AAA Rochester and also added minor league pitching coordinator Rick Knapp to their Major League staff.
Monday, the Twins recalled Josh Rabe (yay!) from AAA Rochester and also added minor league pitching coordinator Rick Knapp to their Major League staff.
2 comments:
You made a good point there about Minnesota Twins fans getting used to Johan Santana's hotness. I have found myself at times totally used to it, but I can't imagine how impressed I would have been if I was able to watch this game, because just by looking at the stats I was blown away. For something you get used to, you never really get USED to it. I mean, eight freaking innings, twelve freaking k's, and something like two freaking hits, that's amazing stuff right there. Johan knew he had to step it up and he majorly did. He impresses me every outing and I feel so lucky to be able to see him so often, being a Twins fan. Super happy we got the win, and like you said...gained ground on both Chicago AND Detroit! I'm glad our offense came back, even though the baseball Gods took away Cudd's homerun. We'll see if Silva picked up something from Johan and can pull through tonight! (Oh, and props to Guerrier, love that guy.)
We're looking at yet another Cy Young year for Johan. He needs to get to 20 wins if he wants it, though. Bartolo Colon got it last year only for that reason - he had more wins. Johan just didn't have the runs behind him that year, but led in nearly every other aspect of the game! (He could've had 3 awards in a row!) Nevertheless, he is amazing, and deserves it. Let's ope he gets the run support to get atleast 20 wins and get that honor.
Silva did awesome tonight. I guess he had a stomach ache though? I hope he feels better soon. What's up with my boy Neesh blowing the game, though? I'm thouroughly disappointed.
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