Carlos Santana punishes Royals in four game weekend series
By Mike Marteny
You all remember Carlos Santana, right? The Cleveland Indians’ catcher who was moved to either first or third base to make room for Yan Gomes. You know, the guy who hit .157 in April and .169 in May? Poor Carlos didn’t get his batting average above the Mendoza line until June 21st.
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Well, that guy is gone now. The old Carlos Santana is back. The one that has eclipsed 18 homers, 70 RBI, and 90 walks in each of his first three full seasons.
The 26 year old Santana had the best series of anyone this season in the four game series vs. the Kansas City Royals this weekend. The good news for the Royals fans? Well, they got to see Santana put on an awesome show, but still took three of four from the Indians.
Santana was 9-14 with six runs scored, five homers, eight RBI, and five walks in the four games.
Carlos Santana has five career multi-homer games in his four year career. Two of them came over the weekend.
Either Santana really likes Kaufman Stadium and KC barbecue, or the Royals pitching is just that bad.
It is more likely that Santana is making up for lost time. His first two months of the season were largely a disaster at the plate. He still was walking at a decent rate, and had three homers in each month, but the rest of his numbers were bad. This had some people publicly wondering if the Indians should move him back behind the plate, or worse yet, demote him to AAA until he got his stroke back.
The Indians resisted the urge to do either, and now Santana is repaying their faith in him. He hit .308 in June, and is at .314 for July so far. His season average is still a bit disappointing at .232, but he already has 20 homers, 50 RBI, and an impressive 72 walks.