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Santana, Angels shut down Royals

May 6, 2008 - 4:12 AM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Ervin Santana had to be at his best to keep his record unblemished.

Santana tossed a four-hit shutout as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim defeated the Kansas City Royals, 4-0, on Monday night.

Santana (6-0) struck out nine and walked none to join teammate Joe Saunders and Chien-Ming Wang of the New York Yankees as the only six-game winners in the American League.

"Santana has been dealing," Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said. "He's been pitching great, throwing the ball to the inside and outside corner, had the off-speed working and blowing guys away. He was very impressive. We got a run right on time for Santana, better late than not at all."

Santana said "so far" it is the best game of his career.

"When you look at a lot of the strikeouts, not too many got into deep counts," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "When he's on and he was as aggressive as he was tonight, he has the potential to not only put up zeroes, but striking out guys and keeping his pitch count very low. He was throwing 96 (miles per hour) to the last hitter."

With John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar on the disabled list, Santana and Saunders have helped keep the Angels in first place in the American League West.

"Joe and I just do our job," Santana said. "They're not here yet. We'll just keep going until they get here. I think we're going to get better. I just wish Escobar get healthy and Lackey, too."

The Angels scored all their runs in the ninth inning.

Erick Aybar led off the Angels' ninth with a triple off reliever Ramon Ramirez (0-1). Aybar scored on Casey Kotchman's single off left-hander Jimmy Gobble's first and only pitch.

"I felt like it was the right pitch in the right situation," Gobble said. "Sometimes that happens. It's a tough loss. When it got to be the sixth, seventh, we really felt like we had a good chance and we didn't think we'd get to the ninth and have that happen.

"We were all fairly relaxed. We just wanted to come in and throw strikes. If it were the same situation, I'd throw the same pitch."

Garret Anderson and Brandon Wood hit back-to-back home runs off Joel Peralta, the third Kansas City pitcher of the inning, to cap off the scoring.

Anderson's home run landed in the Royals' bullpen beyond the right field fence, while Wood's wound up in the Angels' bullpen in left.

The runs in the ninth snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak by the Kansas City pitching staff.

Santana's shutout was his first since May 23, 2005, against the White Sox. That was also his only previous complete game.

"Location and a lot of changeups," Santana said of what was working well against the Royals. "It was a tough game because both pitchers were doing their job."

Royals righthander Brett Tomko matched Santana zero-for-zero through seven scoreless innings. Tomko did not look like the same pitcher who in his previous three starts was 0-2 and had allowed 16 earned runs, 23 hits and six walks.

"We didn't get many good looks off Tomko, but fortunately Ervin matched him pitch-for-pitch and ended up going the whole way," Scioscia said.

Tomko held the Angels to two singles and two walks and struck out a season-high seven, throwing 96 pitches.

"I felt a lot more aggressive with my slider and I changed my grip on my changeups and I was using off-speed pitches as power pitches," Tomko said "I had gotten in a rut of babying my pitches. I just made a conscious effort to go out there and throw them and be aggressive.

"I needed to get to a place where I felt comfortable and I did that. When guys are pitching like that, it's easy to get into a rhythm."

Aybar singled to shallow center in the first, but was out trying to stretch it into a double. Vladimir Guerrero singled with one out in the fourth, but advanced no further.

The only Angel to reach second base before the ninth was Hunter, who walked with one out in the second and moved up 90 feet on Anderson's ground out to Mark Grudzielanek, who made a diving stop to his left.

Tomko retired 11 of the final 12 Angels he faced, the only glitch a walk to Kotchman in the seventh.

"His (Tomko's) legs were starting to go and we saw it and you don't want to make a mistake in a tie game," Royals manager Trey Hillman said on pulling Tomko. "He was very effective. He did a good job and gave us a chance to win, but you're not going to win if you don't score any runs.

"It's difficult for our hitters to be patient when somebody is filling up the strike zone."

The Royals fared no better against Santana, who had only runner touch second base.

David DeJesus led off the Royals' first with a single but was out attempting to steal second base. Mark Teahen singled up the middle in the second inning, but went no further.

"Santana was very good," DeJesus said. "He threw the fastball where he wanted and located all his pitches. He was tough today. He was pitching today. He got ahead of every guy and was putting the ball where he wanted. When you can throw strikes, you'll get some of the borderline strike calls. He deserved it because he was throwing strikes the whole game."

The best Kansas City threat came in the fourth, which Grudzielanek led off with a double. After Santana retired Alex Gordon on a fly ball to center, he struck out Jose Guillen and Teahen to end the inning and strand Grudzielanek.

Ramirez yielded an infield single with two out in the eighth to Jeff Mathis, but struck out Gary Matthews to end the inning.

Santana had not pitched well against the Royals in the past. He was 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA in two starts last season and was 1-2 with a 6.04 ERA in four previous career starts.