Twins 7, Rangers 4

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)—With each stellar outing, Johan Santana is becoming a top contender for the AL Cy Young Award.

Santana allowed one run in eight innings to win his seventh straight decision, and the Minnesota Twins padded their lead in the AL Central with a 7-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

“If he keeps pitching like that, he’s got a serious shot,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Santana (14-6) gave up four hits, struck out 11 and walked one to help the Twins win for the seventh time in eight games, stretching their division lead over Cleveland to eight games.

Santana, who hasn’t lost since July 11, struck out Brian Jordan in the second inning to give him 200 this season—the first Twins pitcher with that many since Bert Blyleven had 215 in 1986. Santana has 10 double-digit strikeout games this year, 13 for his career.

“He has three quality pitches—a good fastball, changeup and slider—and that makes for a very good pitcher,” Gardenhire said.

Santana already has his most career victories and has gone at least six innings in his last 13 starts. He insists he’s more concerned about team achievements than postseason awards.

“I’m just doing my job,” he said. “If you’re healthy and perform, a lot of things will take care of themselves. Winning will take care of things at the end of the season.”

Santana said his ability to throw his fastball for quality strikes makes his other pitches even more effective. The majority of Santana’s strikeouts Monday night came on changeups set up by his fastball.

“That’s the difference between this year and last year,” Santana said. “If you locate your fastball, it helps all the other pitches. My changeup is very good. I’m getting ahead in the count and that gives me more pitches to work with. I’ll throw any pitch at any time.”

The Rangers started the night third in the majors in homers and extra-base hits, but Santana limited Texas to one homer.

“He had a great night,” Texas’ Alfonso Soriano said. “He was very awesome. He had a great fastball and a very good breaking ball. I think right now he’s the toughest pitcher in the league.”

Shannon Stewart and Henry Blanco homered for the Twins in their first matchup with the Rangers this season. The teams began a stretch of seven games in 11 days.

Kenny Rogers (15-6) allowed nine baserunners during the first three innings and remains two short of matching his career high for victories set in 1995. Rogers gave up six runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings.

Gary Matthews Jr. homered and had two hits for the Rangers, who’ve lost two straight following an eight-game winning streak. Texas remained a game behind Boston in the AL wild-card race.

Hank Blalock hit a three-run homer—his 27th—with two outs in the ninth off Grant Balfour to close it to 7-4, but Matthews struck out to end it.

Stewart hit the second pitch from Rogers into the right-field seats for his third leadoff homer of the season and 19th of his career.

“It was good to jump ahead,” Santana said. “From there, I tried not to let them get on top of their game. They can hit the ball out of the park in a hurry, but I was able to keep them off-balance.”

Blanco made it 2-0 with a solo shot in the second, giving him a career-high eight homers this season. Blanco’s RBI double in the third stretched the lead to 3-0 before Matthews gave the Rangers their first hit with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning.

In the sixth, Luis Rivas’ RBI single and Torii Hunter’s two-run double ended Rogers’ night as the Twins took a 6-1 advantage.

Lew Ford hit an RBI single in the ninth to make it 7-1.

Notes

Right-hander Chris Young will make his major league debut when he starts for the Rangers on Tuesday night. He’ll be called up from Triple-A Oklahoma before the game, and will be the 16th starting pitcher used by the Rangers this season. At 6-10, he’s the tallest player in team history. Young is from Dallas and starred in baseball and basketball in college for Princeton. Young will become the first player from Princeton to start a major league game since Dave Sisler of the Washington Senators in 1961. … Minnesota’s Corey Koskie extended his season-high hitting streak to 11 games.