Santana Is Super, Naturally

The way Jon Garland has been pitching this season, it figured to take a Santana-like performance to defeat the Chicago White Sox right-hander. A Johan Santana-like performance, that is.

All the Angels could muster Monday night was Ervin Santana, the rookie who was rocked for six runs and eight hits in four innings of his major league debut in Cleveland last Tuesday, a game in which the jittery right-hander gave up a triple, double, single and home run -- a four-man cycle -- to the first four batters he faced.

But Santana, in his second big league start, rebounded with a performance that would have made his Cy Young Award-winning namesake proud, throwing a five-hit shutout with one walk and seven strikeouts to lead the Angels to a 4-0 victory over the White Sox on Monday night in front of an announced 40,991 in Angel Stadium.

Facing the team with baseball’s best record, and opposing a dominant right-hander who won his first eight games this season, Santana mixed a 95-mph fastball with a variety of sliders and changeups around 83 mph to befuddle the White Sox.

Only two Chicago runners reached second base, one on a ninth-inning error, and only one leadoff batter reached. It marked only the second time in 45 games this season the White Sox have not held a lead in a game.

At 22, the lanky Santana became the youngest Angel pitcher to throw a shutout since 21-year-old Jim Abbott blanked the Boston Red Sox with a four-hitter on May 17, 1989. The native of the Dominican Republic received a standing ovation after the eighth inning and another at the end of a performance in which he threw 83 of 115 pitches for strikes.

Santana walked off the field, grinning and staring at his game ball, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he had done. There was a similar sentiment in the Angel clubhouse.

“We knew his talent and his makeup, but that surpassed our expectations,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “That was an incredible performance against a great club. To bounce back from that game in Cleveland and do what he did tonight was amazing. He pitched like a 10-year veteran.”

When the Angels ended Johan Santana’s 17-game win streak on May 1, they managed only two hits, both solo home runs, in a 2-1 victory. They snapped Garland’s streak with a 13-hit outburst Monday night, including 11 hits off Garland (8-1).

Catcher Bengie Molina, who missed two games because of a sore right thigh, drove in two runs with a sixth-inning single and an eighth-inning home run, and second baseman Adam Kennedy jump-started the Angel offense with a two-run double in the second.

First baseman Darin Erstad, who was nearly traded for Garland in 2002, made his bobblehead giveaway night a memorable one, with a double and two singles and two superb defensive plays, leaning over the railing and reaching far into the White Sox dugout for Tadahito Iguchi’s first-inning popup and Jermaine Dye’s fifth-inning popup.

And shortstop Orlando Cabrera, in a one-for-16 slump, batting .176 (12 for 68) in May and demoted to the eighth spot in the order Monday, had three hits -- including a fourth-inning double, his first extra-base hit since May 3 -- and scored a run.

But Santana, who made the jump from double-A Arkansas to the big leagues, was the story.

“I thought we were facing the wrong Santana,” White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He threw the ball really good. He threw strikes, he threw a good changeup for strikes in tough situations. He kept our hitters off-balance.”

After the Cleveland game, Santana said, “My next outing, I’ll do well.” But even Santana had to admit Monday night, “I couldn’t have imagined anything like this. Something close, but not this.”

That’s the kind of confidence Santana has, and mixed with the poise he showed Monday night, it’s easy to see why he has been considered the Angels’ top pitching prospect for several years -- and why he’ll probably earn at least one more start in place of the injured Kelvim Escobar.

“I’m not surprised at all, because I thought he had the makeup to pitch in the big leagues,” Molina said. “It was just a matter of when he was ready.”

Monday was a matter of location.

“He spotted his fastball, mixed in his changeup and kept his slider down,” the catcher said.

“In Cleveland, his fastball was right down the middle, and his slider and changeup were up. That was the difference.”

Santana, who kept a game ball from every inning -- they were scattered about his locker after the game -- tried not to focus on the White Sox hitters. His tunnel vision was aimed at the catcher’s mitt.

“Bengie told me, ‘You and me, that’s it,’ ” Santana said. “Nobody else.”

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Eight was enough

After winning his first eight starts, Chicago’s Jon Garland suffered his first loss to Ervin Santana and the Angels. Their pitching lines:

*--* Pitcher (W-L) IP H R ER BB SO Garland (8-1) 7 11 3 3 1 4 Santana (1-1) 9 5 0 0 1 7

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