Now that the Twins are back to .500, it would be nice to see Santana get back on track against the Yankees. During the regular season, Santana only has faced one of the Yankees hitters 20 or more times, and that is Johnny Damon, who's he's absolutely owned. Damon is 4-for-20 for a .200/.190/.300 line against Santana. Other than that, the notable matchups I see are A-Rod, who has 2 HR in 14 AB against Santana, and Hideki Matsui, who is 5-for-10 against Santana, fairly remarkable considering that Matsui is a left-handed hitter.
So far this season, I've been relatively disappointed with the pitching. It seems like in general, the Twins have been giving up a bunch of runs. Well, two things have recently made me happier about that. First off, back-to-back quality starts by Kyle Lohse and Scott Baker against two of the better lineups in baseball are very promising for the back end of the rotation. Secondly, I checked out runs allowed for the season so far in the AL, and I got this list:
Team RA
Detroit 40
NY Yankees 43
Boston 44
Minnesota 47
Cleveland 53
Texas 54
LA Angels 56
Baltimore 58
Seattle 58
Oakland 59
Toronto 59
Chicago Sox 60
Kansas City 67
Tampa Bay 69
Now, it's certainly true that the Twins could easily move down that list playing a potent Yankees offense, and everything's still early, but would you have guessed the Twins had allowed the 4th fewest runs in the league? For now, it sure seems like the hitters are ahead of the pitchers in the AL.
If the Twins can win one of the remaining two games against the Yankees, I'll be pleased as punch. Making it through this initial 18-game stretch at .500 would be a great way to start the season, and so far they're already over halfway there.