Here are three thoughts following the Twins' 8-1 win over Texas
SANTIAGO TO PITCH WITH HEAVY HEART: A few minutes after the game ended, Hector Santiago left a heartfelt message on Instagram. It was for his grandmother, who has passed away in recent days.
Santiago still intends to make his start tomorrow against the Rangers, but it could be an emotional night for him.
SANTANA IS 4-0: Pitchers don't have their best stuff every outing. There could be 10 or so starts a season where they have to junk a pitch that isn't working or rely on certain pitches more heavily that others because they aren't feeling right. We've heard Phil Hughes talk about his struggles with his change up recently. That has not been the case for Ervin Santana, who pitched another seven strong innings on Tuesday. Joey Gallo got him for a home run, but that was it. And Santana said his slider and change up have been working fine all season. "So far, yes," he said. "I just have to make sure that when I throw my warmup pitches that I throw everything so I have a good feel for them." Santana is 4-0 with an MLB-low 0.77 ERA. This is his best start since 2008, when he went 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA in April.
O'ROURKE NEEDS TOMMY JOHN SURGERY: There was as story published in the New York Times in 2011 that pointed out that MRI exams aren't that reliable. I kept thinking back to that as Ryan O'Rourke talked before the game. O'Rourke needs Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament that was discovered after getting a second opinion from Rangers team orthopedist Dr. Keith Meister. "The first MRI, everything they showed me, I agreed with," O'Rourke said. "And we put dye in my arm and it didn't leak anywhere." FYI: Injecting dye into the area can help detect tears. "They couldn't see a leak, I couldn't see a leak. So it was read correctly," O'Rourke said. " The second one we did, the dye didn't leak again. But what we delved into deeper, it made complete sense. I think my arm has been through a lot in 28 years of throwing. A lot of scar tissue has built up there. The dye is not going to leak through the scar tissue but things could still be torn in there, which obviously was the case." That's a tough break for O'Rourke, who has spent hours doing research about what could be wrong with him, looking for anything that suggested it was not a torn ligament. But it was.
