Twins ace is efficient and team is satisfied

Johan Santana was in typical second-half form, more than satisfying the Twins with seven dominant innings.

By La Velle E. Neal III, Star Tribune

Last update: July 14, 2007 - 11:50 PM

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire wanted to make his point perfectly clear during his brief postgame news conference Friday night.

"We take care of our pitchers," he said sternly. "That's why they last, and that's what we're going to do with Johan."

By the time Gardenhire met with reporters following the Twins' 5-3 victory over Oakland at the Metrodome, he already had learned of questioning from electronic media analysts about why he chose to remove ace lefthander Johan Santana after seven innings and 91 pitches.

Santana had five days off after beating the Yankees on July 4, then pitched an inning in Tuesday's All-Star Game. Mindful of how sore Santana was toward the end of last season, Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson are using every opportunity to keep Santana as fresh as possible for the meaningful games the club hopes to play the rest of the season.

So despite looking in total command and using only seven pitches in the seventh inning Santana was removed after holding the A's to four hits and a walk . No Oakland player reached second base on Santana's watch.

"Andy [Anderson] went down there and talked to him, and that was it," Gardenhire said. "I'm tired of hearing that [line of questioning]. ... He's not going to get a shutout. He's not going to go nine innings. He already had 90-plus pitches. He pitched a couple days ago, and that's all people want to talk about."

The Twins led 5-0 at the time. After righthander Pat Neshek pitched a scoreless eighth, righthander Juan Rincon gave up a two-run homer to Eric Chavez in the ninth, ending a run of 102/3 scoreless innings by the bullpen.

Rincon was replaced by closer Joe Nathan after giving up a single to Mark Ellis. But the game reached percolating stage when Nathan gave up an RBI double to Jason Kendall that made it 5-3. Shannon Stewart grounded out to end the game, giving Nathan his 17th save.

Santana, who won his fifth consecutive start and improved to 11-6, said he could have stayed in the game but was fine with the decision.

"Andy told me they want me to take everything easy because I'm coming back in five days," said Santana, who is 41-4 after the break since 2003. "And I pitched an inning in the All-Star Game. They wanted me to take it easy."

It was an odd way to end a night in which the Twins won their second in a row since the All-Star break. Luis Castillo was 3-for-4, including a two-run single in the fourth that gave the Twins a 3-0 lead. Jason Bartlett and Michael Cuddyer added two hits each.

Santana is 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA over his past six starts.

Instead of discussing all the ingredients that produced the victory, Gardenhire's short interview session touched on the decisions managers are faced with when dealing with starters and pitch counts.

"We're talking about protecting a young man's arm," Gardenhire said. "The best pitcher in the ballgame. That's what we're going to do."

La Velle E. Neal III • lneal@startribune.com

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