CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Some players just feel at home in certain ballparks -- even when they're the visitor. For Carlos Santana, Target Field might as well have a reserved parking spot with his name on it.
The veteran first baseman continued his remarkable success at the Minnesota Twins' home stadium during Cleveland's recent series, blasting not one but two home runs in the two-game set. This power display was a bright spot for the Guardians, who salvaged a split after dropping the completion of Monday's suspended game.
"This guy has made a living of hitting, not just against the Minnesota Twins, but success in Target Field," Joe Noga emphasized on the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, highlighting Santana's ongoing dominance in Minneapolis.
The first homer came immediately when play resumed in the suspended game, tying the score at 2-2 and giving Cleveland momentum. His second blast arrived in the eighth inning of the series finale, providing crucial insurance in what became a 5-1 victory that snapped a five-game losing streak.
These weren't just random home runs -- they represented continuation of a pattern that's become almost predictable when Santana visits Minnesota. As Paul Hoynes noted on the podcast: "It's not a series with Carlos Santana and the Guardians if he doesn't hit a home run at Target Field. He really likes that ballpark."
What makes Santana's performance particularly significant goes beyond just these two games. When Cleveland brought him back in December after trading away Josh Naylor, they were seeking a stabilizing presence in the middle of their lineup. That investment is paying dividends as Santana is providing protection for José Ramírez.
"They like Santana for his consistency," Hoynes explained. "They know he's going to have good at-bats. They know he's going to get on base. They know he's going to draw a walk. Naylor was more of an up and down, an all or nothing hitter at times. Santana, you know what you're going to get day in and day out. And I think that consistency is starting to surface."
That consistency extends beyond his offensive approach. Defensively, Santana remains a reliable glove at first base, giving manager Stephen Vogt confidence that he'll help the team in multiple facets of the game.
When speaking with reporters after his Target Field showcase, Santana emphasized his pragmatic approach: he's not forcing anything, not trying to hit home runs or draw walks specifically, but rather taking what pitchers give him. This mature approach has served him well throughout his career and continues to make him valuable in his return to Cleveland.
The most entertaining moment of Santana's Target Field visit might have been his first at-bat of the suspended game. After attempting a bunt against Minnesota starter Joe Ryan, the two exchanged words and smiles. Moments later, Santana delivered his home run, prompting Ryan to drop his glove and applaud the veteran's prowess.
Want to hear more about Santana's Target Field takeover and his growing importance to the Guardians' lineup? Check out the full episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, where Joe Noga and Paul Hoynes break down his performance and what it means for the team moving forward.
Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.
Joe Noga 0:05Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast. I'm Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. The Guardians walk away with a split of two games in Minnesota. They head to Detroit for a big series there after getting through two games in a less than ideal, you know, weather consider.Conditions with Minnesota being just cold and rainy the entire time they were there. They come away with a split, winning five to one in game two. After the suspended game was completed, they lose that game 65 and a walk off. Let's start there.With the continuation of Monday's suspended game, they they start in the 4th inning and right off the bat they even the score up Carlos Santana with a solo home run. This guy has made a living of hitting not just against the Minnesota Twins, but success.In Target Field, he hit his first home run of the day in the 4th inning of the continuation of the suspended game, tied the score at 2:00 to 2:00, and you thought, you know, the Guardians were in business at that point.
Paul Hoynes 1:20Yeah, it's not a series with Carlos Santana and the Guardians. If he doesn't hit a home run at Target Field, Joe, I mean, he really likes that ballpark and just, you know, great swing and really good sign. You know, he's been coming on lately.And maybe he can, you know, keep this going and help stabilize the middle of that lineup and give Jose Ramirez some protection.
Joe Noga 1:50Yeah, he he homered again in in the second game in the 8th inning when the Guardians had a 2-1 lead, gave him a little bit of breathing room in the 8th inning and just the way that Carlos Santana has, like you said, come on lately in the last last couple of weeks. You know he had a.16 games, something like that on base streak he was hitting. He's still hitting the ball really well, giving you good at bats. Just this is what they got Carlos Santana for after they traded away. Josh Naylor, they needed some some sort of veteran presence in the middle of the lineup and you know they knew what he would bring.Clubhouse anyways, but is is this sort of the the by design what they were doing when they they brought in Carlos Santana back in December?
Paul Hoynes 2:39Yeah, I think that's that's a good way of putting it, Joe. You know that. I think, you know, they they like Santana for his consistency. They know he's going to have good at bats. They know he's going to get on base. They know he's going to draw a walk. You don't get the wild swings.You know of, you know, production. You know, like Naylor. Naylor was more of an up and down, an all or nothing hitter at times. You know, Santana, you know what you're going to get day in and day out.And I think that consistency is starting to surface.
Joe Noga 3:18Yeah, and you know, he also brings a really solid glove defensively. He's he's always going to, you know, help you. He's not going to hurt you in that in that regard. And and we saw in this series, you know when he's comfortable at the plate, when he likes the the environment, you know it's not just.That he's going to be consistent. He's going to go out and give you something to to win a game as well. Just a lot of, you know, good things. We talked to him after the game and you know, he said, you know, I'm not out there, you know, trying to trying to walk or trying to hit a home run.I'm just taking what they give me at this point and he's not trying to do too much. I think that was sort of a theme that he was trying to communicate to us was that he's not trying to go out and and do beyond what he can, what he's capable of and and really that sort of is showing in the results for him right now.
Paul Hoynes 4:16Yeah, I like the, you know, the first at bat of the suspended game. What he attempted a bunt and Joe Ryan came in and said something to him and it looked like Santana smiled back at him and then he hit the home run and what Ryan drops his glove and starts clapping. That was that was interesting.
Joe Noga 4:22Mhm.Yeah, I was, you know, a nice little scene there because, you know, Stephen Vogt mentioned it after the game. He played last season with Minnesota. He's very familiar with those guys and you know, it had to be interesting for him to see.Joe Ryan come out to start the the second part of that suspended game. This was a this is a starter for Minnesota. This is not, you know, a guy who's faced the Guardians. He has faced the Guardians a bunch of times in his career and has had a lot of success. But that's as a starter, not as a reliever. And he comes in.And and for the most part, you know, 5 1/3 innings, you know, really, really shoves for for Minnesota before handing things over to Johan Duran. The Guardians kind of get to him in in in the.9th inning down three runs. They mount a comeback. Bo Naylor with a big two run double after Nolan Jones drives in a run. But the you know he missed the the three run home run by about 5 feet. Had that gone over the wall, I think the game would have turned out a little different.Instead, they tie it up, but Minnesota able to walk it off against Kate Smith in the bottom of the 9th with a Cody Clemens double that just gets past the glove of Angel Martinez. What do you think of Kate Smith in the 9th inning? We're not used to seeing something like that out of him.
Paul Hoynes 6:05Yeah, this is a couple, you know, two or three outings in a row where Cade Smith has been hit and and not just hit, but hit hard. Joe is they're not, you know, it's not infield hits. They're driving the ball against them and you know, I guess.As a Carl Willis said in in Cincinnati, it just goes to show you that Cade Smith is human. He's not a robot, but I it is a bit of concerning. I mean, obviously he was very, very good last year. What over 100 strikeouts in in a regular season?You know, you know, maybe the third most for a reliever in Cleveland history. And you know, it's just there's something. He looks like he's a click off, Joe. It's just something is missing right now and he's getting and he's paying the price for it.
Joe Noga 6:56Yeah. And you know, I'm, I'm sure we would have heard something if there was anything wrong physically or if if he was dealing with any sort of injury or injury concerns at any point. But you know right now it's that sometimes the other, the other side gets a hit and.That's it's just something to keep an eye on as as they move forward, how much they use him, what situations they put him in as as he moves forward, just to see, you know, where he is, whether it's, you know, between the ears or you know, something physical.We'll we'll find out as we go forward. So yeah, that was game one ends on a Minnesota walk off. They gave them their 10th consecutive home win, put the Guardians at what, 5 consecutive losses.Even though it was a game that started on Monday and you know took more than two game, two days to finish that one game, Guardians come out on the short side and you know it was another situation sort of like.I think the there's another situation that was sort of like when they were in Washington playing the double header there where that second game, you know, trying to avoid a sweep and and really sort of needing a win in that.Situation just to to feel good about themselves heading into Detroit. And and that's exactly what Gavin Williams gave them. Gavin Williams came up huge in that second game. Six innings allowed one run on two hits and just, well, I don't know, 6 strikeouts and.I believe that was one of the best performances of the season for Gavin Williams.
Paul Hoynes 8:48Yeah, he really looks strong, Joe, especially as as as he got deeper into the game. You know, he was really, his location was great, staying away from the middle of the plate, you know, he was working the edges, working the top rail, the the bottom, the bottom part of the strike zone.Just looked really, really good to me. You know, he throws what on 98 pitches, 6060 strikes and a look he looks, he looked like he could could have gone another inning. I know obviously he's at 100 pitches right around there, but it looked like he looks.Strong enough where he could have gone 7th yesterday.
Joe Noga 9:29Yeah, if it wasn't, I think for the third inning where they made him work, I think he had 30 pitches in that inning. He he probably does maybe go another frame for them. Just the the the cut fastball has has become a real weapon for him. It's it's given him the ability to pitch to, you know.Three, actually four different areas of the strike zone and and really sort of take hitters off of his fastball and it just makes every other pitch for him a little more effective. And he talked about how, you know, throwing more cutters.Is is helping open up his pitch repertoire and we we saw that on on Wednesday in the second game he he said you know after facing Minnesota earlier in in the year he he knew that they were aware.Aware of of his fastball and they they knew that, you know, they were looking for that. And then Gavin Williams came out and said, OK, I'm going to throw you the cutter. You know, I'm going to make you at least think about that and and then go at you again with the rest of my arsenal. And he was hitting the strike zone, Stephen Boat said after after the game.You know, the more he he lands his pitches in the strike zone, it sets other things up and and he can really go out there and pitch and that's what we saw from him. So you know, great outing, second time he's sort of gone into Minnesota in a in a sort of a messy weather situation when the club.Needed a win and gotten one and so it's a, you know, just a good look for him as as they they head into Detroit, being able to stop that five-game losing streak and being the guy that that they sort of needed him to be and step up and and preserve for the most part, preserve the bullpen.Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herron, Emmanuel Class A come in behind Williams allowed just one hit among them. I think the numbers for Class A in in Minnesota against Minnesota just over the last.You know what, 14 appearances against the Twins since 2023. He's got a 0.64 ERA. He's only allowed seven hits in in 14 innings, one walk and 14 strikeouts. So pretty much everybody in the press box when they saw Emmanuel.Class A coming into that game, even though it was a 5-1 lead at the time, they they knew they could, you know, pretty much finish writing their stories because the game was over.
Paul Hoynes 12:08It's always a good feeling, Joe, and it's a feeling we haven't had too much with Class A this year. So yeah, that hopefully he's getting back on the horse here and you know he's he's getting back into last year's form and you know the one thing with William Williams, Joe.The last time he faced the Twins on April 28th, he lasted just two innings, gave up seven hits, four runs, two walks, 2 strikeouts through 61 pitches. So yesterday was a dramatic step in the right direction.
Joe Noga 12:35Mhm.Yeah, big, big swing for for Gavin Williams. Big swings for Carlos Santana. Two hits, including the home run in the 8th inning like I talked about earlier. He's now hit safely in his last seven games at Target Field.Including games you played for the Twins in September and Jose Ramirez three hits, went three for 516th multi hit game of the season. Steven Kwan three hits his 18th multi hit game of the season.Ramirez is hitting streak now at 14 games. On base streak, I believe is at 18 games. Just all around. You know, a good way to send this team off to Detroit. We'll get to a preview that series here in a second.But we, you know, wanted to mention some some positive news and progress in terms of one of the top prospects. You know, we talked about and made a big deal about how all three of the Guardian's top prospects were on the injured list and the minors, including Travis Pisana.Jason Cheerio, but #2, and probably the one who's closest to making his big league debut at some point, Chase to Lauder is is now heading to to Columbus to continue his his rehab after a sports hernia surgery in spring training.What are you hearing about Chase the Lauder moving back to Columbus from Arizona?
Paul Hoynes 14:17Yeah, Joe, he finished his stint in the Arizona Complex League, played eight games there, and he's traveling to meet the Clippers. I believe they're probably in Columbus, and he should be just join them in the next day or so.And, you know, start playing for for, you know, Class AAA Columbus. Good news. You know, hopefully they can keep him healthy. I think that's the only thing holding this guy back, Joe, his health. I mean, he's had all sorts of injuries.Since they drafted him as their first round pick in 2022 out of James Madison. But if this guy can stay healthy, he's going to help the Guardians at some point this season.
Joe Noga 15:05Yeah, it's it's no argument that when he's on the field, he's productive. He's been, you know, a guy who doesn't strike out too much, puts the ball in play and and has, you know, home run potential that that's going to translate to the big leagues at some point.It's just a matter of keeping him upright and and preserving him, but but at some point you got to let him go out there and play, right? I mean, I think that's what they were trying to do, you know, around this time last year when he was in Akron and he kicked the sidewall of a.You know down the the first base line and and busted up his toe. It's just these freakin injuries that have have been occurring to him. You found that you know like some players you cover throughout the years are are just just happen to be more injury prone than others.
Paul Hoynes 15:57Yeah, Joe, it happens. You know, regardless of how talented you are, you know, guys are just, you know, their their frames are built different. They're they, they, you know, they're just, you know, it just, you know, unfortunately that happens, you know and you know.Whatever their whatever their you know their their body chemistry and makeup is you know it it just you know it it they're more you know more they're more exposed to injuries. Hopefully this you know the Lauder is this you know the Lauder is past that and I think you know sometimes.Sometimes it's, I think you just have to kind of, you know, grow out of that and and mature and and get stronger and bigger. And I mean Dilauder's a specimen, Joe. He's 63, he's about two, 2:30 to 40. He can run, he can throw.This is a guy that all he has to do is stay on the field and uh, but we know that's a that can be a challenge for guys.
Joe Noga 17:01Yeah, and and this isn't, you know, us questioning his toughness or anything like that, that that that's not the conversation here. You know, Major League Baseball players are tough. They play every day and they go out there and you know, when they even when the body says, you know, hey, give me a break, they they push themselves and they get out there. It's this is just a.The situation where we're looking at it saying, you know, some guys tend to find themselves on the injured list more often than other guys. And you know, there's there's got to be something to that. But it's not. It's definitely not a question of heart or ethics or, you know, effort or anything like that.It's more like, you know, just why does why does the sun shine on one guy and you know the rain cloud, you know, form over the other guy. It's just sometimes it it baffles me as to to why, you know, a guy like De Lauder who has all the talent in the world can't manage to to stay on the field.So we'll it's going to be interesting to see how he does at at AAA and how how many at bats he needs before the Guardians are able to turn around and say, OK, it's time to to bring him up here. He'll also be rehabbing alongside, you know, guys like Lane Thomas.And there's, you know, there's plenty to look forward to coming out of Columbus in this roster. This Guardians roster could look a little different than in the coming weeks. Let's take a look at this big series coming up between the Guardians and the Tigers.It starts Thursday, hopefully, weather permitting in Detroit. You know, the the forecast is is calling for pretty much the same kind of weather we had in in Minnesota. But the pitching matchups are for the most part set right now. Guardians are going to send Tanner by.The mound on Thursday, Slade Sacconi on Friday, and you know it's the early part of the series should be interesting for Cleveland.
Paul Hoynes 19:12Yeah, you know, the rain out, the rains in Minnesota helped, you know, pushed, changed, rearranged that that you know the the rotation, Cleveland's rotation. So they get they pushed Bobby back to tonight. He's going to go against Jack Flaherty from Detroit.Flaherty faced the Guardians four times last year, Joe. Three with Detroit, one with the Dodgers had a 1.07 ERA against them. They still haven't hit this guy, Joe, so this is going to be a challenge for him. Bybee was one and one and four starts against Detroit last.
Joe Noga 19:45Mhm.
Paul Hoynes 19:51Last year doesn't have a great, you know, career record against the Tigers, but last year was, you know, a positive sign that you know he's he's maturing and he can face and can face the Tigers and not only face them but beat them. Then we've got, you know, Slade Sacconi going.Friday, this will be his second start with Cleveland. Had a really good debut against the Reds over the weekend, eight strikeouts, five innings. So that's promising. Then Then they go Luis Ortiz and then Logan Allen for the final two games.Games of the series.
Joe Noga 20:32Yeah, Jackson Jobe, the the young pitcher for Detroit, will will. We'd see him in that second game against Sacconi. He's four and O with a 4.12 ERA. Just how much of A challenge is that going to be?Not having faced the guy and and he's he's found some early success for the Tigers.
Paul Hoynes 20:54Yeah, I I I'm thinking, Joe, did they face him in a relief role in the in the ALDSI think he they he might have. Yeah, they got a look at him, a little bit of a look at him. But this guy, he's pitching really, really well. So and this will be their first extended look.
Joe Noga 21:00I I believe so, yeah. Yeah, he did come in and and and it wasn't.
Paul Hoynes 21:11And you know, the Tigers have made hay with their rotation this year and that's a strong point of their team. And you know, they've they've, you know, they've lost a couple of guys. They've had to put a couple of starters on on the IL, but it's still a formidable group right there.
Joe Noga 21:31Yeah, Terrick Scubbel, of course. The the game on Sunday. That's an early start. 11:35. When's you're going to have to wake up early, get to the ballpark at at the crack of dawn. 11:35 first pitch with the the Roku game of the week. So should should be fun.I'm sure there aren't are a whole bunch of guys in that clubhouse who are not going to want to be there that early on Sunday morning. But the Saturday night game is the Fox game of the week. The Sunday game is on Roku, so that's where to find those games. But yeah, this is.Getting back into it, into the AL Central, this is the race that I think everybody back in in November was thinking, boy, every time these two teams meet in 2025, it's going to be a an absolute battle. Right now it sort of feels like a, you know, Detroit is is in the.Seat because they've got the best record in baseball.
Paul Hoynes 22:34Yeah, they're running away with this division, Joe. Cleveland comes into the series six games out and you hate to say anything is critical in May and at the end of May, but they've got to play really well in in this series, Joe, they've got to get a split or this thing could get away from them and they they'll they'll be playing for the Wildcats.So big, big series and Detroit, you know, knows this. They could have started started Flaherty yesterday against Saint Louis, but they went with a bullpen game and won anyway. They pushed Flaherty back so he could pitch against Cleveland because of his previous success.So they know what they know what's at stake here. The Tigers got a chance to not bury the Guardians, but really put a herd on them. And so we'll have to see how Cleveland responds. You know, Joe, this is a, you know, Stephen Bolt keeps saying.That this is a a really a a completely different team than last year's team that that won the division. And in a way he's right from April, you know the Guardians took over first place last year in April 14th and never looked back. They were never out of first place again.This time they are six games back, they're in 4th place behind and we have to see how do are they are, can they grind their way back and get back in this race? And you know, it's really a it's a different ball club, a different.A different offense, a different lineup, and this is a challenge for them.
Joe Noga 24:12Yeah, we we know that Steven Vogt has the ability to to win a division when he's out in front and and sort of, you know, putting things in in the rearview mirror. Can Steven Vogt now guide a team from the back of the pack and and come back and and and take over the division?From six games back at this point, we will find out for the remainder of this season, and that starts in Detroit tonight, so we'll watch that. Hoinsey will be back with another edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast tomorrow. We'll talk to you then.