Carlos Santana joins exclusive club with 2,000 games played as Twins fall late to A's

Source: The New York Times
Author: Dan Hayes

OAKLAND, Calif. -- There are 273 former players enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate New York. As of Friday night, only 251 in baseball history have appeared in 2,000 games.

In his team's series opener, Carlos Santana celebrated the latter in style.

Missing a go-ahead homer by only a few feet, Santana hustled around first base in the fourth inning and slid into second with a hustle double, a play emblematic of the style the 38-year-old has brought to the Minnesota Twins this season. Despite the Santana double and homers by Royce Lewis and Willi Castro, the Twins dropped a 6-5 contest to the Oakland A's in front of 9,158 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Shea Langeliers blasted a decisive two-run home run off Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning to thwart the Twins, who'd rallied from an earlier three-run deficit.

The hit extends a hitting streak to seven games for Santana, who joins Joey Votto and Andrew McCutchen as the latest players to join one of baseball's most exclusive clubs.

"It's kind of crazy," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It's admirable. It's just amazing. ... There are some stats that guys don't really care that much about. This is the opposite. This is one of the ones that means a lot to the guys because when you show up and you give so much of yourself to something, something like this means a lot to you."

Dedication and a dogged nature helped Santana arrive at this point.

From 2011 through the 2021 season, his age 25 through 35 seasons, Santana appeared in 1,607 games out of a possible 1,680, roughly 96 percent. He played in at least 152 games nine times in those 11 seasons and in 60 of 60 during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

During his career, Santana has made only four trips to the injured list.

"I say thanks to God every day for giving me another opportunity to stay here," Santana said. "I'm very proud. I feel great. I feel great. I think I've worked hard for that and for this moment. Today is a special day for me."

Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers for $75,000 in 2004, Santana was traded to Cleveland in 2008 in a deal for third baseman Casey Blake. He made his major-league debut on June 11, 2010, for the Guardians. Over two stints, he played 10 seasons and 1,334 games in Cleveland, reaching the postseason three times, including playing 20 extra games during the team's American League pennant run in 2016.

A bit of a baseball journeyman in the second half of his career, Santana has since made stops in Philadelphia, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Milwaukee before signing a one-year deal with the Twins for $5.25 million in January. Reaching 2,000 gave Santana reason to consider the achievement.

"I mean, 2,000 is 2,000," Santana said. "It's too fast, you know? Everything's fast. I remember 14, 15 years ago, my first at-bat in Cleveland. It's very special, my career. I'm excited. I'm excited."

Santana has delivered a strong brand of ball to the Twins in his 15th year in the majors. Following a slow start that had fans calling for his release, Santana bounced back just like he thought he would.

Santana, whose .755 March/April OPS is the second lowest of any months for his career, carried a .347 OPS through April 20. But entering Friday, Santana since was slashing at a .287/.365/.545 clip with 10 doubles and 12 homers in 200 plate appearances.

Before the game, Baldelli showed the media a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label he planned to present to Santana after the game. The team would drink one and Santana would be gifted another.

"I like celebrating guys that dedicate their lives to something and set an example for all the people around them and do it in a way that we would all consider the right way or a great way of handling things and he's done all that," Baldelli said.

It took only three pitches for Duran to finally falter in a save situation. Taking over in the eighth inning with a one-run lead, Duran hit Tyler Soderstrom with his first pitch of the game. Two pitches later, Shea Langeliers ripped a 93.7 mph splinker from Duran out for a stunning two-run homer.

Perhaps it wasn't stunning that Duran suffered a poor result as he was tagged with his third loss of the season. But the velocity of his pitch definitely came as a surprise. Normally, Duran throws his splinker 97 mph, 95 at its lowest. But the right-hander didn't even touch 94 as Langeliers blasted his 14th homer of the season.

"I don't like referencing the velocities in particular -- but you know, 93.7 is lower than almost any split that you'll see," Baldelli said. "It's not the only reason the ball got hit. The pitch was up in the zone as well and (Langeliers) didn't miss it. To see some home runs hit today, this is not an easy place to hit some balls out of at night. You really have to hit the ball good. ... But that particular pitch, like I said, it was not where you would normally see that pitch."

As his ERA crept to 3.91, Duran contended his health isn't an issue. Duran's very next splinker registered 95.9 mph, and he later topped 100 mph with a pair of fastballs.

"I felt good," Duran said. "That's going to happen sometimes where I feel bad and I throw hard. Today, I felt good and I didn't throw too hard. ... I tried to throw a little bit more hard, but I didn't want to put in all the power that I had, because I don't want to lose my control. That one was in the middle. It wasn't moving at all. When I do some pitches like that, the hitter's got a chance. They take it. He's a good hitter, and he has power, so he took that pitch and he got a homer."

Only four players in baseball history homered more times in their first 16 games than Lewis, who reached the stands for the 10th time this season Friday and the third game in a row. With the Twins offense in need of a pick-me-up, Lewis got enough of a sweeper from Austin Adams to drive it out over the high wall in left field, the blast making it a 4-2 game.

Only Alex Rodriguez (2007) and Mike Schmidt (1976), who hit 12, and Aristides Aquino (2019) and Albert Pujols (2006), who each blasted 11, have more homers in 16 games to start a season than Lewis. Thus far, the most games Lewis has gone in a row without a homer is three from June 7-9. Through 86 career games, Lewis has 27 homers in 314 at-bats.