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Hunter, Santana give Yankees cause to covet them as future free agents
BY PHIL MILLER
Article Last Updated: 07/05/2007 12:05:56 AM CDT
Twins second baseman Nick Punto fields a bunt by New York s Melky Cabrera and throws him out at first base during the fifth inning Wednesday. “I heard up and down the bench that that might have been the best play they ve seen him make, or anybody make,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. (New York Times)
NEW YORK - They really needed a victory, absolutely had to break their three-game skid, so the Twins didn’t have much choice. They stuck Torii Hunter in the lineup, put Johan Santana on the mound, and prayed George Steinbrenner and his elastic checkbook weren’t in the house.
That’s right, they put on display, right there in front of baseball’s most gluttonous shoppers, two of the spiffiest models that the free-agent market might someday see. And although Hunter and Santana, as though driving up their price with every at-bat and every pitch, helped deliver the 6-2 victory that Minnesota so thirsted for, you couldn’t help notice how many in the sellout crowd were picturing the Twins stars’ faces on granite monuments in left field.
Heck, even Ron Gardenhire couldn’t help himself.
Hunter “is the straw that stirs the drink,” Gardenhire said after the free-agent-to-be shook off his 1-for-17 slump to slug two doubles. And if you don’t think New Yorkers won’t take that as an obvious hint about how effectively Hunter might roam Reggie Jackson’s old haunts, you haven’t read enough 6-inch tabloid headlines.
That’s not all. At the risk of inducing ulcers statewide, check out Gardenhire’s assessment of Santana’s standard-issue lockdown performance, his fourth straight win: “It’s Johan and a big stage,” the manager said. “New York - he likes it.”
Now you know why Twins general manager Terry Ryan scowls so much. It’s a wonder the Yankees don’t ask to measure Hunter and Santana for pinstripes before they leave town.
Both players deflected questions about their love for all things Yankee - though Hunter repeated his stance that “if the Twins don’t bring me back, I’ll just be thrilled and thankful to be playing baseball wherever I go,” hint, hint - preferring instead to focus on the task in front of them.
“My No. 1 goal is to win a championship in Minnesota,” Hunter said, and for the first time in three days, the Twins didn’t make a mockery of that notion. They broke their 1-run-in-30-innings drought in the first inning, got two-run home runs from Jason Kubel and Luis Rodriguez, and rode Santana to their first victory since Saturday.
Santana, whose contract has only one year remaining and whose value rises with the summer temperature, allowed only two runs and four hits in seven innings. He pitched slowly and carefully, particularly after Hideki Matsui deposited a pitch in the right-field grandstand. Santana, now halfway to a second 20-win season at 10-6, threw 74 pitches through the first four innings, then settled in and retired the final 10 batters he faced on only 33 pitches.
“He was pretty fired up in the dugout,” Gardenhire said. “(The Yankees) are going to make you throw pitches. They foul pitches off. But Johan was ready to go even farther when I took him out. We all know the story there - he would like to extend his pitches, we would like to extend his career.”
Santana threw fewer changeups and sliders than normal, after discovering his fastball was hitting 95 mph with regularity and a strong wind was knocking down anything hit to left or center field.
“That was impressive. Usually he’d use more changeups against a great team like that, but he challenged them,” Hunter said of his teammate. “They hit a lot of home runs, they get a lot of lift on the ball. He said ‘OK, if you can cut that wind, you’re the man.’ ”
They couldn’t - but Hunter could. After striking out with a runner on second in the first inning, Hunter launched three shots the rest of the way, the latter two falling for doubles, each time leading to a run.
“He was on a mission to put good swings on some balls,” Gardenhire said.
Especially after he failed to. Hunter swung at a tough Mike Mussina cutter in the first inning, and the frustrations of the previous night, when he was ejected for screaming at an umpire, came back.
“I had to calm myself down after that first at-bat,” said Hunter, whose contract expires in October. “I came back in the clubhouse, drank some coffee, settled myself down, said a little prayer, and I was ready to go.”
So was Kubel, who broke a 2-2 tie with his sixth home run of the season, which drove in Hunter ahead of him, in the seventh inning.
Now the Twins have a chance to leave the Bronx without a losing record for the first time since 2001 if they can beat Kei Igawa today. Then they will head to Chicago, careful to make sure the Yankees haven’t confiscated their stars.
“You guys talk like they’d be good here,” Gardenhire taunted the New York media. “They’d be good anywhere.”
He just hopes he never has to find out.
