Mike Maroth Topic Page

Johan Santana lost his third game of the season in the dome after coming into the season with almost 2 years without a loss at home. Johan certainly pitched well enough to get a win on most days, but once again the offense failed to support a Minnesota starting pitcher. Santana left the game with a 2-1 deficit. He struggled early and allowed a run in each of the first and second innings, but settled down to pitch well in his next four innings. He threw 50 pitches in the first 2 innings and just 49 in the final four.

The Twins and Tigers will be shown on National TV for two of the three games. They'll be on FOX Saturday baseball and then will be the Sunday night game on ESPN. The Tigers will come into the Dome just as hot as the Twins are cold. The Tigers have won 9 of 10 and have amounted a healthy 4.5 game lead since the Twins took their first series of the season by 2 games to 1.

Johan Santana wasn't at his best on Sunday against Detroit and him and Mike Maroth dueled in a game that was close all day long. Pitch count ultimately got the best of Santana and he was forced to leave after throwing 114 pitches through six innings. Home runs got the best of Santana; the two he allowed accounted for all three of the runs he allowed.

After the first inning of Saturday afternoon's game in Detroit, things couldn't have gone much smoother. After a good game Friday night, it looked like the Twins had reverted to their old ways. Jason Tyner and Nick Punto singled to start off the game only to have Punto get picked off at first and then have the inning ended on ground outs from Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer. In the Bottom of the inning, Carlos Silva allowed two singles, a double and a triple, but escaped with only 2 runs allowed.

Most Twins fans can remember the series in Detroit on the last weekend of April last year. The Twins lost 9-0, 18-1 and 6-0. It was, without doubt, the lowest point of last season.

This game was a lot closer than the final score indicated. As predicted, the Mark Buehrle and Johan Santana matchup turned out to be a pitchers duel--until the 8th inning.