Blyleven, now the Twins' tv color analyst, watched Sunday afternoon as Johan Santana raised the bar, 21 years later. It was bound to happen.
Santana (13-9, 2.88 ERA) was absolutely dealing, polishing off his 1-0, 8-inning shutout with 17 strikeouts to lead the Twins past the Texas Rangers. He's reached double digits in strikeouts four other times this season, fanning 13 in a 7-1 win at Texas on May 22nd.
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The two-time Cy Young award ace retired the first 12 batters he faced before Sammy Sosa led off the fifth with a smash that hushed the Metrodome until it hooked just left of the foul pole. Seconds later, he drove a single to left-center to break up the no-hit bid. Sosa also doubled with two outs in the seventh for the Rangers' only other hit against the lefty.
Johan struck out six of the last seven batters he faced, punctuated by a 93 mph fastball that zoomed past Jarrod Saltalamacchia on his 112th and final pitch.
Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth for his 27th save in 29 chances. It was shaky and terrifying, as he allowed Ian Kinsler on base with an error after over-stepping the bag as he covered first for Morneau. Then Kinsler stole second without a throw from Redmond. Nathan retaliated, striking out Brad Wilkerson and Michael Young to save Johan's dominating performance.
Add in Joe Nate's 2 K's and you've got another club record for most combined strikeouts in a single game. The previous mark was 18, set in a 4-3, 13-inning victory over Cleveland on June 2, 2005. Santana just so happened to start that game as well, finishing with 14 Ks in that win.
Twins sluggers Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter each drove balls deep to center - both of them caught at the wall. The lone Twins run came on a 425-foot Michael Cuddyer bomb off Texas starter Kevin Millwood in the second inning.
No more mistakes for Millwood (8-10, 5.39 ERA) though, as he allowed just four hits and struck out three over seven innings for Texas.
Fun fact from Elias: Johan's display marked the most in a game since Milwaukee Brewers' ace Ben Sheets fanned 18 in their 4-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in 2004.
[Around The Majors]
4 comments:
GREAT recap. That was vintage Johan right there - considering how he's pitched so far the second half - it was refreshing to see him back.
Thanks for the blogroll link. I must say, you're pretty awesome as well.
HOT pic of Johan.
If Terry Ryan lets Johan slip through his fingers I'm gonna murdalize him. Johan is the best pitcher in baseball and a class act. He could have gone for the major league record but instead chose to let Joe Nathan finish the thing off for him. Thinking like that is almost unheard of these days.
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