Solving Santana, Tribe wins fourth of the year against Twins' ace

Five times Johan Santana has gone up against the Tribe this year.


Five times Santana - perhaps the best lefty in the game, though Cleveland fans will disagree - has come away empty.


Four of those five times, including tonight at the Jake, Santana has had to wear the "L". The Twins did win one of Santana's starts, on July 28, but Johan was not the winning pitcher.


I haven't checked it out, but since he has only six other losses all year, it's safe to assume no other team has beaten Santana the way the Tribe has in 2007.


The reasons for the Tribe's success against Santana this season are twofold; The lefty has run into both CC and Fausto twice, and the Tribe hitters are better against the Twins' ace than their counterparts around the league.


In five starts this year against Cleveland, Santana is 0-4 with a 4.09 ERA. Against the rest of the league he is at 3.06 - a full run lower. Given the Tribe has beaten him 5-3, 2-0, 5-2, and 4-3 that one run difference has made all the difference.


Neither Santana nor CC were at their best tonight, and it seemed like the Tribe might knock Santana out early, having scored four runs on six hits in the first inning.


But both vets sucked up their control problems and gutted out six innings each.


Some other observations:


While the Tribe swept the Twins, I'm happy to see them move on. They seem to consist of Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau and about a dozen annoying, unnamed gnats. But those gnats get on base, run the bases, play terrific defense and generally are a huge pain in the ass. They play the game the way it used to be played, which is fun to watch unless they are doing it against you. We'll see what style they play when they finally move out of that ping-pong palace they play in now.


It was terrific to see Asdrubal Cabrera get up there against Santana and hit him (homer, single and sharp ground out back of third) like he were Joe Schmoe. Cabrera clearly wasn't intimidated. Ditto Franklin Gutierrez (two doubles in three tries against Santana).


It was also great to see Jensen Lewis have a trouble-free seventh when he was sorely needed. In fact, Lewis has very quietly had a nice month of August. He has not allowed a run in seven of his last eight outings, dating back to August 4.


And let's not forget Joe Borowski, who finished his job in three batters tonight - though he was helped by a 3-6 double play started by Ryan Garko.


One final thought. Chris Gomez, starting at second and moving Cabrera to short to keep Jhonny Peralta out of the line of Santana's fire, had two more hits tonight. I've said it before. I'll say it again. Maybe it's time for Gomez to give Casey Blake (0 for 3 with four runners left on base) a nice week off.