August 20, 2007

Santana the Great

Johan Santana beat the Texas Rangers on Sunday 1-0. Santana's 17 strikeouts not only were a new career high for him, but it was also a new franchise record as well. Santana struck out the side in the 2nd, 7th and 8th innings and had 4 innings in which he struck out 2.

The two-time Cy Young award winner gave up just 2 hits to the Rangers and both came off the bat of Sammy Sosa while he cruised to his 13th win with 8 shutout innings. He would've went out for the 9th to try and tie the Major League record of 20 strikeouts in a single game, but his pitch count of 112 made him have to "settle" for "only" 17.

Joe Nathan came out and pitched the 9th and struck out 2 more to bring the game total to 19 total strikeouts.

The Twins only run came off of a Michael Cuddyer home run to straight away center field in this second inning. It was his 12th home run and his 63rd RBI of the season. Torii Hunter, Tommy Watkins and Nick Punto all had 1 hit each, but the one run was (thankfully) all the Twins needed for the win.

The win brought the Twins within 6 games of the Division Leading Cleveland Indians. The Twins trail the Tigers by 4.5 games for second place.

Game Ball
Profile: Johan Santana, #57, Starting Pitcher
Game: 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 17 K

Next

The Twins will host the Wild Card leading Seattle Mariners for a 3 game series at the Metrodome. On Monday there will be a little bit of "Deja-Vu" while the Twins will send Matt Garza to the mound to face off against Horacio Ramirez of the Mariners. The two battled it out last Wednesday and Garza picked up his 2nd win of the season while giving up 3 runs over 7 innings. Ramirez on the other hand gave up 6 runs over 5 innings en route to his 4th loss of the season. Ramirez has been horrible on the road this season by having 3 losses and an ERA of 13.50. Garza has had just a string of bad luck at home, in his 3 starts, he's 0-2 with a 2.76 ERA. Hopefully the Twins can come out victorious again against the struggling Ramirez.


Rochester Red Wings lost to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, 5-4.

Brian Bass had a good start allowing just 1 run over the first 6 innings, but Bobby Korecky gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in attempt of his 33rd save of the season. Denard Span went 2-4 with his 17th double of the season. Newly acquired, Matt Macri has had one hit in each of his first 3 games and on Sunday, he went deep for his first time since he was acquired, it was a two-run home run. Jose Morales and Brian Buscher also drove a run for the Twins.

New Britain Rock Cats beat the Portland Sea Dogs, 4-3.

Ryan Mullins went the first 7 innings and gave up 1 run on 3 hits. He also walked 4 and struck out 4. Despite giving up 2 runs, Tim Lahey picked up his 12th save of the season. Rashad Eldridge, Trevor Plouffe, Kyle Geiger, and David Winfree all had 2 hits each. Plouff had 2 RBI's including his 9th home run of the season. Winfree also had 2 RBI's. Matt Moses and Brandon Roberts both had 3 hits each.

Ft. Myers Miracle beat the Lakeland Flying Tigers, 11-4.
Juan Portes went deep twice, and drove in 5 runs in route to a 3 hit afternoon. Erik Lis had 2 hits including his 32nd double of the season and he also drove in his 89th RBI of the year as well. Dwayne White went 2-5 with an RBI. Ed Ovalle and Brian Dinkelman both drove in 1 run while Steven Tolleson drove in 2. Errol Simonitsch struck out 6 in 6 innings while giving up 4 runs (2 earned) to earn his 3rd win for the Miracle. J.P. Martinez and Eddie Morlan combined for 3 shutout innings and 3 strikeouts in relief.

Beloit Snappers vs. the Kane County Cougars.
Game postponed due to rain.

GCL Twins beat the GCL Pirates, 5-1.
Liam Hendricks
struck out 11 batters and went 6 innings of 1-hit ball to win his 5th game of the season. Ben Revere went 1-3 with a run scored. Yangervis Solarte drove in 1 run on 2 hits for the Twins. Juan Richardson drove in his 29th RBI of the season.

Elizabethton Twins beat the Bristol White Sox, 5-4.
Michael McCardell struck out 9 for the Twins, but also gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits in his 6 innings of work. Curtis Leavitt later struck out the side in the 10th to pick up his 2nd win of the season. D.J. Romero was just a home run away from the cycle with his 15th double, 1st triple and he also drove in 3 runs for the Twins. Estarlin De Los Santos had 3 hits from the leadoff spot. Ozzie Lewis and Danny Lehmann drove in the other runs for the Twins.

For more Minor League scores, check out MiLB.com

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