Ryan Garko Topic Page

Winning the series against Cleveland was certainly not expected the way the Twins limped into Cleveland after being clobbered in Toronto. With C.C. Sabathia on the mound for Cleveland it seemed even less likely the Twins could win the rubber game of the series.

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:

The Twins went into extra inning for the first time of the season on Monday night against Cleveland. Carlos Silva held Cleveland scoreless until the fifth, but he managed to rack up a high pitch count before that point. Early in the game Silva was pulling the same stunts as his past three starts--he was stranding base runners. Things finally caught up to him when Victor Martinez came to bat with 2 outs and 2 on in the fifth inning. He hit a no-doubter to give the Indians a 3-run lead. Silva completed five and allowed 7 hits and 2 walks. He did strike out 6.

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.