Santana takes a back seat
OK, we will excuse the Associated Press writer for choosing Torii Hunter over Ervin Santana for the main subject of his game story. The writer is from Minnesota, after all, and Hunter hitting a home run against his old team certainly is big news in the Twin Cities. But anybody who has followed the Ervin Santana saga, knows that the right-hander was the real story Thursday afternoon at the Metrodome. Santana's pitching line isn't even mentioned in the story. He gave up two runs on four hits in six innings and now has as many road victories as he did all last season: ONE.
Poor Ervin. Hopefully he'll forget his road struggles and keep pitching like he did today. I don't think he's that bad on the road though. He's lost a lot of road games but I'd like to know, how many were close? Last year he lost in Kansas City. I blame Scioscia for that loss. He pitched six shutout innings in a light rain. He should have been pulled after six but what left in to give up a homer and gave up a 1-0 lead. Was that a bad start though? I say no.
Santana has the stuff to win a lot of games. He just needs to keep his head in the game. He always seems to have an inning where he throws four straight balls. Mike Butcher needs to watch for that and make sure he stays away from that.