This was brought up on a local radio show when talking about the playoffs. Can the Twins win a game when Santana does not pitch? You can assume that when he pitches, the Twins have a very good (almost 90%) chance of winning. So if Santana pitches twice, can the Twins pull out another victory and beat the Yanks in the 5 game series?

With the way Radke and Silva have been pitching and since the Yankees don't exactly have Sand Koufax, yes.

john kruk made the same ignorant statement. He said the Twins couldn't win if santana doesn't pitch. He is soo wrong. Radke, had the 4th best ERA in the AL, and had a k/BB of nearly 5.5/1. Also, they have silva, who is a formidable 3rd starter.

Well they spoiled Radkes start last night...

I wouldn't count on Silva too much... They only reason he didn't end up up with an era around 5 is becuase he ended the season with a 1.72 era in Sept, however he pitched against KC, Det, CWS(2), and Clev, the last of two were hardly the offensive teams they were earlier in the seasonbecuase of Sept. callups. Had he faced contenders, or maybe the same full rosters he had ealier in the season, he wouldn't have had that good of a Sept and would have ended with an era around 4.50 to 4.75. Given that, he still pitched very well, but take into mind that it was against teams that weren't contending and were playing the call-ups, so of course if you're pitching well, you're only going to pitch better against AAA players. He also pitched against the Yankees once this year, at home, and gave up 7 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings. I think the Twinkies are going to have to win game 4, because I don't think they are taking game 3. Brown has to get it to the bullpen with a 1 or 2 run lead.