After the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim beat the Minnesota 5-4, despite the Twins’ best efforts to stay in the game, Paul Molitor sounded perplexed as to what was up with Ervin Santana.
His $55 million starter lasted only five innings, gave up five earned runs for the fourth time in five starters and gave up 10 hits for the first time since August 8 of last season.
“It was just a game where, for Ervin, they just seemed to get a lot of good swings,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “I’m not exactly sure what the issue is but he’s throwing hard, he’s using his slider. The troubling thing is that, the three times we scored, they answered. You’d like to go back out and try to put zeros up to give us a little momentum.”
It wasn’t until the fourth inning that Santana put up a zero, and by then the Twins were down 4-2. But Minnesota was able to put up a run in four of the first six innings, continuing to remain competitive in the game despite a lackluster start from Santana.
Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton both had doubles. Joe Mauer had an RBI triple in the fifth, which came as a result of a misplay by Angels left fielder Jefry Marte on his sinking liner, that got Minnesota within 4-3.
Mauer, Grossman and Juan Centeno all all had two hits for the Twins. Minnesota was 4-for-7 with runners in scoring position on the night.
“It’s very frustrating when you see the team put in all the effort to try to keep their place in the game,” Santana told the Star Tribune. “And every time we score I give up runs. It’s not good pitching.”
Kole Calhoun and Johnny Giavotella both homered and four Angels batters had multiple hits on the night.
“We kept coming back, but the problem was every time we’d score they’d answer,” Molitor told The Associated Press.
[Star Tribune, The Associated Press]
