Angels roll past Rays behind Santana's shutout

By foxsports
Published

If there's one pitcher the Los Angeles Angels would love to add to their rotation for the pennant race, it's last season's version of Ervin Santana.

Luckily for the Angels, Santana is looking more and more like his old All-Star self these days.

Santana pitched a sterling three-hitter for his first home win of the season, and Jeff Mathis hit a three-run double off the left-field wall in the Angels' 6-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.


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Reggie Willits' two-run single in the fifth broke open a scoreless game for the Angels, who boosted their AL West lead over Texas to five games with their 18th win in 25 outings since the All-Star break. With his third career shutout on just 97 pitches, Santana (5-6) made it quick and surprisingly easy.

"We could see it coming within Ervin," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "A lot of areas on our team needed a performance like that. He had a lot of pitches working. He couldn't really have pitched a better game. ... He's a much better pitcher (now) than we saw all year."

A dominant start by Santana was a welcome development for the Angels, who declined to make a risky trade-deadline move to bolster a rotation that's been awfully shaky beyond ace John Lackey and Jered Weaver.

Santana has missed 52 games during two stints on the disabled list this season, rarely resembling last season's 16 game-winner even when healthy. When asked if he knew such a start was coming, Santana grinned and acknowledged he did, citing improved work in the bullpen and a delivery adjustment.

"It was very impressive," Santana said. "I was hitting my spots, throwing off-speed for a strike. ... I just forget about (previous losses) and keep pitching, because I'm a winning pitcher, not a losing pitcher."

Santana was outstanding from the start against the defending AL champions, retiring 12 of the Rays' first 13 batters. He had given up at least four runs in each of his last four starts, but he allowed just one Tampa Bay runner to reach second base.

Newcomer Gregg Zaun had two hits for the Rays, who have lost four of five on their West Coast road trip. Exactly two months after the Rays battered Santana for eight hits and six runs in Tampa Bay, they were baffled by the right-hander.

"He was just throwing his breaking stuff pretty good and keeping guys off-balance," Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford said. "It didn't look unhittable at the plate, but obviously we weren't hitting it, so he was doing something right."