Minnesota Twins' Pitcher: Johan Santana

Heard of him?

Published on September 3, 2004 By Jamie Burnside In Sports & Leisure

Tonight (September 3rd) the Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0.

Pitcher Johan Santana took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

Once the seventh inning came, the pitcher gave up a single. Then a second baseman's error gave the Royals runners on first and third with nobody out.

From that moment on, Mr. Santana got "The Eye of the Tiger." He ended up striking-out the next three batters to finish the night with eleven. I have never seen a professional athlete so obviously and effectively "switch it on" in a game before. I was really impressed!

He threw some of the most amazing change-ups that I have ever seen!

Johan Santana (the AL leader in strikeouts) is now 16-6 with an ERA of 2.96 (9-0; 1.54 since the All-Star break.) Amazing!

The Twins haven't had a "top two" (Brad Radke and Johan Santana) as effective as this since Bert Blyleven and Frank Viola in 1987. I'd even argue that Radke and Santana are a stronger one-two punch than Blyleven and Viola.

My favorite top-two starters are Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hersheiser from the early-1980s Dodgers. Do my readers have a favorite one-two punch? (No Yankees please. They don't count.)

Go Twins!

Comments

SSG Geezer

on Sep 03, 2004

Since I am a Twins fan also, I think I will just agree with you Jamie.
i have to give props to Randy Johnson (my Aunt thought they were saying "Big Eunuch")
and Curt Schilling their WS year. the Big unit was amazing when I saw him in Seattle too.

Jamie Burnside

on Sep 03, 2004

Good one! Randy Johnson and Kurt Shilling.

The Oakland A's had a really good combo with Dave Stewart and another right-hander in the late-1980s/early 1990s. (I am struggling right now to remember his name. -Ron Darling was a really good number three starter.)

This will drive me nuts! Anyone able to put me out of my misery?

*Here's another good one: Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 03, 2004

I will have to say the best one-two-three punch I ever saw was, oddly enough, from a losing team...

that would be Randy Johnson, Eric Hanson and Brian Holman of the Mariners of the early 90's. They suffered from a lack of relief pitching and the lack of a 4th and 5th starter, but were an incredible team.

Another nomination would be Randy Johnson and Dave Fleming from, I believe it was 93...they combined for over half of the team's 62 wins.

But, I would agree with Schilling and RJ from '01...I consider the 2001 World Series the best ever (a Yankee loss in the world series, Riveira gets rocked in game 7, what's not to love?)

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 03, 2004

OK, the correct stats....1992; Fleming won 17 games and Johnson won 12....meaning the two of them won 29 games for a team that won 64...pretty impressive, I think.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!