Whether he was pitching for scouts in attendance or just to solidify his future with the Twins, Ervin Santana (3-7) was in complete control, as he stymied the Oakland A’s for a complete game shutout in a 4-0 win at Target Field on Wednesday afternoon.
Santana faced just one over the minimum in his first shutout since June 16, 2012 — a 2-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks — in a game that started roughly 11 hours after the final out was recorded in Tuesday night’s game.
Santana was long gone by that point however, he said after the game. “I got my running and throwing in, and got out of there,” Santana said. He added that once he heard the game might not start until 8:30 or later, he knew that was going to be the best course of action.
But if the results were any indication, Santana was clearly right. The A’s didn’t record their first baserunner until there were two outs in the fifth, when Billy Butler hit a double off the base of the left field wall and was stranded when Yonder Alonso flew out to center.
Santana played it coy after the game about if he was “feeling it,” however. “Not at all,” Santana said about if he felt locked in early. “You never know against a team like that. I just try to be patient and take it one pitch at a time.” Santana added that his offspeed and breaking pitches worked well, and that he had a good rapport working with Juan Centeno behind the plate. As of Wednesday’s game, Centeno and Kurt Suzuki had both caught Santana on seven occasions.
The only other time the A’s threatened also involved Butler, and it came in the eighth inning. Stephen Vogt opened the inning with a rocket single to right center that broke up a string of seven straight batters set down by Santana. But Vogt’s time on base was extremely short, as Butler cued the second pitch he saw to Joe Mauer in front of first base. Mauer stepped inside the baseline and masterfully started a 3-6-1 double play with Ervin Santana receiving the relay throw from Danny Santana with plenty of time to get Butler on the back end.
“I haven’t had many decisions in a year-and-a-half of letting a guy go out there to get a shutout,” Molitor said about his late-inning decision to keep Santana rolling. “But, he was dominant.”
The last four batters of the game went down without a whimper, as Santana narrowly missed a “Maddux” — a nod to Greg, with a complete game shutout under 100 pitches qualifying — but instead had to settle for a 100-pitch shutout with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Sonny Gray (3-8) bounced back from a rough start against the Pirates last time out to give the A’s six pretty strong innings. The Twins littered the bases — stranding them full in the third and and leaving a pair in scoring position in the seventh — but only pushed across a single run on Gray’s watch. Gray went back out for the sixth despite having over 100 pitches, and rewarded manager Bob Melvin’s faith by working around a two-out double to deep right by Danny Santana.
The Twins put up their only run against Gray in the fifth as Robbie Grossman walked and Mauer followed with a double that just missed shortstop Marcus Semien’s glove and ultimately ran the left-center gap. Mauer was stranded at second, but the Twins had their first lead of the game at 1-0.
The Twins added a pair more in an eventful seventh. With Marc Rzepczynski pitching, Grossman walked again, and Mauer rolled a single through the right side to move Grossman to third. That brought on John Axford, who got Brian Dozier to ground into a fielder’s choice before Miguel Sano singled to load the bases. That brought up Max Kepler with his second chance at a bases loaded situation in the game. Kepler grounded to third to end the threat in the third, but this time coaxed a walk in an impressive seven-pitch plate appearance that at one point had the rookie down in the count 1-2. Eddie Rosario followed with a slicing drive to left that Khris Davis tracked down, with Dozier trotting home with the Twins’ third run.
The Twins put one last insurance run on the board in the eighth, as Danny Santana opened with a ringing triple off the top of the right field fence batting right handed against lefty Patrick Schuster. Danny came into the game batting just .147/.194/.176 against lefties with just one extra-base hit — a double against Toronto’s J.A. Happ on May 21 at Target Field. Santana raced home on Eduardo Nunez’ screaming drive to right-center that A’s centerfielder Billy Burns barely corralled to cap the scoring at 4-0.
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Up Next: RHP Chi Chi Gonzalez (0-1, 9.53) vs. RHP Tyler Duffey (4-6, 5.62) – 7:05 p.m. Thursday
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Notes & Quotes
- The time of game Wednesday was 2:44, just two minutes longer than the delay (2:42) to start Tuesday night’s game.
- Jose Berrios was named to the Triple-A All Star team, the club announced Wednesday. Twins GM Terry Ryan said it’s “just a matter of time” that he’ll be back in the big leagues.
- Twins prospect outfielder Daniel Palka (Double-A) was named Southern League Player of the Month for June, and right-handed pitcher Felix Jorge won the same honors for the Florida State League (High-A). Palka hit .302/.372/.802 in the month of June with 13 home runs, three doubles and three triples. Jorge was 5-0 on the month, with a 1.59 ERA and 31-2 K/BB ratio in 34 innings for the Miracle.
- The Twins won the series 2-1 with the A’s, and have won three straight sets at Target Field.
- The last Twin to throw a shutout was Andrew Albers against Cleveland on Aug. 12, 2013. Albers also threw a two-hitter that day.
- Santana on providing a possibly tired team a lift after a late night: “Of course (it was satisfying). I just came today trying to put zeroes on the board, and I tried not to think about it because it was a rough night (for the team).”
- Santana on his conversations with the manager heading into the late innings: “He asked me how I was feeling, and I told him I felt great.”
- Molitor on Santana’s effort: “I can’t say enough about how Ervin threw the ball. I thought he had a lot of trust in all his pitches. He threw that slider early for strikes, and put a little more bite on it when he wanted to get a chase pitch. But he was in control. We had a little concern with him coming off a high-pitch outing last time, so we were kind of watching that a little bit, but he made the managing aspect of it pretty easy.”
- Molitor on if he ever seriously considered going away from Santana late: “As long as he was good. Like I said, coming back after the last outing….but I checked in every inning after the sixth. He was good. I didn’t want to get anybody up until there was a baserunner in the ninth. He eliminated that problem as well. Just a dominant start by him.”
