In 2005 Johan Santana started off the season with 3 straight victories. He was poised to do it again, but one bad inning and the lack of offensive support sent the Twins and Johan to a loss against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Twins could muster only 2 runs against the tough lefty, Scott Kazmir.

Santana appeared to be cruising after he struck out the side in the third, but things fell off track a bit in the fifth inning. Delmon Young led off that inning with a single and then advanced to second on a rare wild pitch from Santana. Akinori Iwamura walked before Santana struck out Carlos Pena for the first out of the inning. Josh Paul drove in the first run and set up runners on second and third. B.J. Upton drove in another run when Santana’s flip to Joe Mauer at home wasn’t in time. The third run of the inning scored on a Rocco Baldelli feilder’s choice.

The fourth Devil Ray run scored on a Carl Crawford inside-the-park homerun that got past left fielder Josh Rabe. Rabe was starting in left over Kubel presumably because of the lefty starting pitcher. Hopefully it wasn’t for defensive purposes.

Full Box	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Devil Rays	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	4	7	1
Twins	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	7	0

Game Notes

• Johan Santana struck out 10 batters through 7 innings. 6 of the strikeouts came in the third and sixth innings.
• Joe Mauer had a poor night at the plate. He struck out twice and grounded into a double play
• Justin Morneau might be at the start of a hot streak. After his walk-off last night he hit a bomb into the upper deck in right field on Friday night. He also had a double in the ninth inning.
• Luis Rodriguez got another start as the DH. He drove in the first run of the game in the second when Torii Hunter scored from second on a single.
• Torii Hunter stole his third base of the season in the second.
• Glen Perkins saw his first action of the season with 2/3 IP in the ninth inning.

It’s always disappointing when the Twins can’t translate a Santana start into a victory. Sidney Ponson will get a chance tonight to rebound from his rought first start against the Yankees earlier in the week. I’m excited for the game just because I’m anxious to see the Ponson experiment reach a conclusion one way or the other.

He’s a pitcher, not a sweater

A final rant…Could the Twins broadcast crew maybe get someone to go over the pronunciation of names with Dick Bremer and more-so with Bert Blyleven. Bert spent all night pronouncing Kazmir as Cashmere. Dick was a little closer with his pronunciation as Kazmurr. Anthony Lapanta did get it right, fortunately.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on them. Rick Sutcliffe botched the pronunciation of AL MPV Justin Morneau’s last name last Monday on the PA & Dubay show.