Fausto Carmona Topic Page

The Cleveland Indians entered the weekend series with the 3rd highest scoring offense in baseball. The Twins entered the series having allowed the 5th most runs in baseball. So far through two games, things have gone exactly opposite of what those numbers indicate.

The Twins have held the Indians to just 1 run in each of the last two games while taking advantage of poor pitching from Fausto Carmona and Carl Pavano. Kevin Slowey nearly pitched a complete game shutout, but ran into trouble in the ninth on Saturday and had to be bailed out by Luis Ayala. Nick Blackburn turned in his best start of the season, allowing just a run in 7 innings.

The Twins enter the series at Cleveland with a 7-9 record, which puts them just 1.5 games behind Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City for the division lead. Cleveland is just a game behind the Twins. The Twins are fortunate to have the record they have, considering they've played much worse than that in terms of runs scored (66) vs. runs allowed (97).

The pitching matchups for the weekend:

Friday: Nick Blackburn, RHP (0-1, 5.71) vs. __Fausto Carmona, RPH (1-2, 7.88) Saturday: Kevin Slowey, RHP (2-0, 5.89) vs. Carl Pavano, RHP (0-2, 9.69) Sunday: Glen Perkins, LHP (1-1, 1.50) vs. Aaron Laffey, LHP (1-0, 2.19)

The Twins' 1-0 victory on Sunday over Cleveland put them within 4 1/2 games of the Indians for the AL Central lead and within 4 games of Wild Card leading Detroit. It's the closest they've found themselves to the lead since May and Sports Club Stats gives them an 11.4 14.6% chance of making the playoffs.

Johan Santana had his best start of the season with 2 back-to-back homers in the seventh inning by Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko being his only flaw. Besides the homeruns, Santana allowed just 3 baserunners and struck out a season-high 11 batters through 7 innings. It also marked his 100th straight start that he went at least five innings which is a truly amazing feat. In the past 50 years only 3 other pitchers have had longer streaks:

In the series preview on Monday I said C.C. Sabathia was a bad match up for the Twins offense right now, and that certainly proved true on Wednesday night. The game started after a 30 minute rain delay, but the Twins' bats weren't ever able to get much going off of Sabathia. They managed just 1 run on 5 hits and a walk through eight innings and were defeated handily by a score of 7-1.

The Twins have ridded themselves of one problem in Sidney Ponson, but there are still many more. Joe Mauer is still out for at least another week and despite Sunday's breakout performance, the offense has struggled to produce runs as the Twins have lost 4 straight series. To make matters worse they'll take on the 21-14 Indians who are 11-3 at their combined homes (They played a series in Milwaukee).

The Twins will open up a short two game series against the Cleveland Indians on Monday night at the dome. The Twins will be fortunate enough to miss C.C. Sabathia by one day and they'll have Johan Santana going for them on Tuesday.

Santana was on the mound for the Twins on Friday night, and for many that's all you need to know to realize what the outcome of the game will be. When Santana pitches, it's usually a win, but not on Friday night. Johan got hit around early. He gave up a 2-run homer in the first and also allowed a run in the second and fourth innings. After that he was back to his dominant self. Santana faced the minimum in the fifth through eighth innings.