There is no crying in baseball; we all know that by now. But deriding your work environment when things don’t go your way? That’s apparently fair game for Ervin Santana.
The Minnesota Twins pitcher took to the media to call Yankee Stadium a “joke” Wednesday after giving up two home runs to rookie first baseman Greg Bird, as captured by Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press:
Bird’s two home runs drove in all four of the Yankees’ runs in their 4-3 win. Santana gave up those four earned runs and seven hits over his 7.2 innings of action, his longest start in nearly a month. Yankee Stadium has been a consistent thorn in Santana’s side in recent years, generating his highest ERA of any opposing stadium since 2012.
Still, it’s fair to wonder if Santana’s comments were more about Yankee Stadium itself or his own frustrations. The former All-Star is in the midst of perhaps his worst big league season, posting a 2-4 record with a 5.53 ERA through his first nine starts. He has posted just four quality starts since returning from his performance-enhancing drug suspension, only one of which has come in his last five appearances.
“In all honesty, I think he’s been trying to do an awful lot because we all know what happened,” Twins pitching coach Neil Allen told Berardino. “I think he’s trying to prove his worth to everybody: the city, the team, everybody. I think he’s trying to do too much.”
Santana, 32, is in the first season of a four-year, $54 million contract. So perhaps he’s pressing. Perhaps he’s a little rusty following the PED suspension. Or perhaps it’s all the stadium’s fault. Odds are it’s much more likely to be one of the former statements than the latter. The Twins won’t be playing in New York again this year, so Santana will be spared from pitching in Yankee Stadium again until 2016.
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