Ervin Santana has pitched 11 career shutouts, including three this season, and there’s been an odd (and probably random) pattern accompanying those terrific games. In his next start, no matter how well he pitches, his team usually loses.
Santana’s teams are 3-6 in his followups to a shutout (one came in his final start of the 2009 season), and 0-3 with the Twins. This season, his next starts have produced only two earned runs in 13 total innings, a 1.38 ERA — yet the Twins have fallen apart once he departs, outscored 22-10 in two losses.
It’s a bizarre pattern, and one the Twins would surely love to break tonight against the Mariners, on the heels of Santana’s brilliant four-hit shutout of the Giants last Saturday.
“You know he’s going to have a plan. A lot of his plan, regardless of who we face, generally centers around making sure that [hitters] are fastball aware, and he’s confident in throwing it and getting it in on righties and lefties,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “If he gets that point, it certainly opens up options for finishing guys off.”
He’s done a good job of that; Santana’s 63 strikeouts in 13 starts easily lead the Twins, who rank last as usual in that category this season.
“You just hope he goes out there and is something close to what he’s been the majority of his starts this year,” Molitor said of the 34-year-old ace.
Meanwhile, Eduardo Escobar and Eddie Rosario are in the lineup again tonight, following their memorable performances against the Mariners on Tuesday. Rosario smacked three home runs, while Escobar racked up five hits filling in for Miguel Sano. The third baseman is back in the lineup tonight, but Molitor couldn’t take Tuesday’s hitting stars out.
“You kind of go by feel,” Molitor said. He had planned for Rosario to play again against Seattle rookie righthander Sam Gaviglio anyway, and “I think a lot of players would have been surprised tonight if Esco wasn’t playing,” the manager said. So Jorge Polanco gets another night off while Escobar moves to shortstop.
Here are the lineups for the third of four games against the Mariners:
MARINERS
Gamel LF
Haniger RF
Cano 2B
Cruz DH
Seager 3B
Valencia 1B
Dyson CF
Zunino C
Motter SS
Gaviglio RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Sano 3B
Kepler RF
Vargas DH
Escobar SS
Castro C
Buxton CF
Rosario LF
Santana RHP
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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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