Santana: 'We're not giving everything that we have'

Richard Sennott, Star Tribune

Johan Santana gave up six hits and one walk while striking out six on Monday as Cleveland defeated the Twins 5-0.

The Twins ace lost to the Indians for the fifth time this season, and both the defense and the offense were lacking.

By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune

Last update: September 4, 2007 - 5:01 PM

Twins pitcher Johan Santana had some pointed comments Monday after reaching a dubious milestone.

The Cleveland Indians handed the two-time Cy Young Award winner a loss for the fifth time this season, as C.C. Sabathia overpowered the Twins for eight innings in a 5-0 victory at the Metrodome.

No Twins pitcher had lost five games in a season to the same team since Joe Decker went 0-5 in six starts against Oakland in 1974.

Santana (14-11) never had lost more than twice in a season to the same team. In fact, he averaged 5.5 losses per year over the previous four seasons.

"They're playing good baseball," Santana said after Cleveland pulled 10½ games ahead of the Twins. "They're comfortable. They're playing with confidence, and that's how you win games.

"If you look around, we don't have that. We're going out there, and we're not giving everything that we have."

The Twins suffered their major league-leading 13th shutout loss, as Sabathia (16-7) held them to six hits.

This was nothing new to Santana, who received just eight runs of support combined in his six starts against Cleveland this year.

The Twins failed him with defense this time, as well.

"We're supposed to be one of the best teams on fundamentals; we're not making those [plays]," Santana said. "If you don't do that, you're not going to win. And everything's going to go to one pitcher, or one player? I don't think so. It's a team effort, and right now, we're not doing it."

Santana was charged with four earned runs in six innings. In the fifth, he surrendered his American League-leading 30th home run, to Ryan Garko.

But Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said better defense would have prevented Cleveland's first two runs.

To open the game, Santana walked Kenny Lofton and gave up a single to Asdrubal Cabrera. But with runners at first and second, Travis Hafner hit a bouncer right back to Santana, who fired to second base, hoping to start an easy double play.

But the ball handcuffed shortstop Jason Bartlett, who was charged with his major league-leading 24th error.

"With Hafner running, I thought [Santana] might just throw it up there nice and easy," Bartlett said. "He kind of snuck it in there, and it surprised me."

Alexi Casilla made a base-running gaffe in the Twins' first, getting thrown out at third base trying to advance on a sharp grounder to shortstop by Torii Hunter.

Cleveland took a 2-0 lead in the second after another misplay. After Santana walked Casey Blake, Ben Francisco doubled. Hunter sprinted to cut off the ball in left-center field, but Bartlett couldn't handle the throw back from the outfield and had no play as Blake scored from first.

"You can't do that with that baseball team over there," Gardenhire said. "They take advantage of every mistake."

The Twins fell back to .500 at 69-69.

"If we don't make adjustments, we're not going to win," Santana said. "That's the way it is."

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com

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