Santana dominates in the Dome

Published 12:00 am Monday, August 21, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) &045; Not even a painful blister on his pitching hand could derail Johan Santana. He’s just been unbeatable at the Metrodome.

Santana held the White Sox offense to one run in seven innings and Michael Cuddyer had two hits and two RBIs in Minnesota’s 7-3 victory over the White Sox on Sunday, cutting Chicago’s lead to one game in the AL wild-card race.

Santana (15-5) hasn’t lost at the Metrodome in 20 starts, dating to Aug. 6, 2005. He is 13-0 with a 2.03 ERA during that stretch.

Email newsletter signup

The Venezuelan lefty wasn’t his usual overpowering self on Sunday as he pitched with a blister and split nail on the middle finger of his left hand. He allowed six hits and struck out five, but got better as the game went on. After allowing at least one runner to reach in each of the first five innings, he retired the last nine hitters he faced to help the Twins take two of three in the weekend series.

Tadahito Iguchi had two hits and an RBI to break out of a 2-for-17 skid for the White Sox, who scored two runs in the eighth off reliever Juan Rincon on a sacrifice fly from Jermaine Dye and a single by Joe Crede that made it 5-3.

But Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer off Neal Cotts in the bottom of the inning and Joe Nathan shut the door in the ninth.

In his last three relief appearances, Cotts has given up six runs, five earned, in 2 1-3 innings.

White Sox starter Javier Vazquez (11-8) gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits in seven innings. He entered the game leading the majors in run support with 8.13 per game, but knew he wouldn’t have that luxury facing Santana, who is making a strong bid for his second AL Cy Young award in three years.

Santana is a major league-best 9-0 at home this year and hasn’t lost since the All-Star break.

The big-hitting White Sox used a little small ball to get on the board in the third. Pablo Ozuna blooped a single into shallow right field and scored off a double by Iguchi.

Jason Tyner led off the third by reaching on an error by Paul Konerko. He advanced to third on a single by Jason Bartlett, who hustled into second when left fielder Pablo Ozuna tried to get Tyner going to third.

Both runners scored on a single by Mike Redmond and Cuddyer and Justin Morneau added RBIs in the inning to give the Twins a 4-1 lead.