Ervin Santana continued his impressive run, tossing seven-plus strong innings to outduel Danny Salazar to lift the Twins to a 3-1 win over the Indians on Tuesday night at Target Field.
With the win, the Twins improved to 77-73 and are two games back of the Astros for the second American League Wild Card spot. Cleveland (74-75) fell 2 1/2 games back of Minnesota. The two clubs meet six more times down the stretch.
Santana was sharp yet again, as he lasted at least seven innings for a fifth straight start and has a 1.50 ERA over that span. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts to win his fourth straight decision. He left after allowing consecutive singles to open the eighth, but Glen Perkins came in and got out of the jam.
“He was really good,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said of Santana. “He got my attention in the first inning because his command wasn’t great and he was kinda finessing his fastball, but I know he knows how to pitch that way, too. But he reached back as the game went on and had better command and a better ratio of strikes to balls and his breaking ball got better.”
Santana outlasted Salazar, who went six frames, surrendering three runs on five hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Salazar was hurt by a three-run third inning that also saw Indians left fielder Michael Brantley leave with a right shoulder injury.
“He jammed his shoulder and it was hard for him to get extended when he was hitting, so we got him in, got him iced,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He’s already talking about playing tomorrow, so we’ll see. We’ll see how he shows up.”
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