KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ervin Santana continues to be Jekyll and Hyde this season, a weird habit for such a good pitcher. In Santana's 10 victories, he has allowed only eight runs — and six of them in one game — in 71 innings, a 1.01 ERA. But he was handed his fifth loss on Friday, and in all five, he has allowed five or more runs. This time, it was seven runs, five earned (thanks to his own error). That's a 9.22 ERA, or 28 runs in 27 1/3 innings.
Even Santana can't explain it.
"This is baseball. Even though you don't want to fail, one day you're going to," he said. "I just keep my mind positive and every time I go fail, I try to give my team a chance to win. I don't try to do anything different. … I know everything is not going my way right now, but eventually it will be."
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Even after the awkward way he found out he was being sent back to the minors — basically, he was pulled away from a celebratory postgame gathering with his family to get the news — Alan Busenitz found reason to be happy.
Busenitz said he learned that he can compete at this level — he posted a 2.08 ERA in six appearances — and learned what he needs to work on, a valuable lesson that will help him get back. "You've definitely got to be able to throw your secondary pitches for strikes," he said. "If they can eliminate that, they can hit a fastball."
But after throwing 2 2/3 innings on Friday, thus preserving the Twins' bullpen for Saturday's doubleheader, the righthander was sent out so a fresh arm can be brought in, just in case.
Ryan Pressly returns for his third stint with the Twins on Saturday, having collected two wins and two saves while allowing only one run over the past 10 days at Rochester.
