Santana, Twins Spoil Mussina’s Return to Rotation
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MINNEAPOLIS – Johan Santana took a shutout into the eighth inning last night and won his fifth straight start, spoiling Mike Mussina’s return from the disabled list by pitching Minnesota to a 7-2 victory over the Yankees.
Mussina, making his first start since July 6, allowed five hits and four runs in four innings. Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Torre said he hoped to get at least five innings out of Mussina, but he didn’t have much on his pitches and Tanyon Sturtze came out for the fifth with the Twins leading 4-0.
Mussina (9-7) looked rusty from the start. His second pitch of the night was down the middle and Shannon Stewart knocked it into the left-field seats to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
Mussina appeared to settle down after that, but things started going sour for him when he led off the fourth by hitting Lew Ford in the leg with a pitch. Corey Koskie followed with a broken-bat double, and Cristian Guzman hit a two-run double off the baggie in right field.
Three batters later, Stewart lined a double to left to score Guzman and make it 4-0.
Things got uglier for the Yankees in the sixth. Henry Blanco led off with a triple off Sturtze and scored when Stewart hit into a double play. Jones then hit his 20th home run of the year and Torii Hunter followed with a double and scored on Justin Morneau’s RBI single.
Jacque Jones also homered for Minnesota, which won for the fourth time in six games and sent the Yankees to their third consecutive loss.
Santana gave up two runs and five hits in seven-plus innings with six strikeouts and one walk. He retired 11 in a row during one stretch and helped put an end to Jeter’s 17-game hitting streak.
He brought a loud roar from the crowd when he barely missed hitting Jeter in the head with a pitch in the third, sending Jeter sprawling to the ground.
After giving up only two hits through the first seven innings, Santana (13-6) allowed three straight hits to open the eighth and a run-scoring wild pitch. He was relieved by Grant Balfour, and the Yankees scored another run on Miguel Cairo’s RBI groundout.
Joe Nathan struck out two in the ninth, extending his streak to 29 scoreless innings spanning 28 appearances.
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NO SURGERY FOR SHEFFIELD Gary Sheffield will not need surgery on his ailing left shoulder, but said he’ll likely get two more cortisone shots to help alleviate the pain.
Sheffield said he’ll play through the pain for the rest of the season and then rest the shoulder. Sheffield said his doctor told him the injury shouldn’t get worse if he plays.