One night after they bludgeoned Carlos Silva and Julio DePaula for 14 runs, Johan Santana took the mound in Texas and the Rangers had trouble simply making contact. After serving up a long solo homer to Sammy Sosa leading off the second inning, Santana got swinging strikeouts on the next five batters he faced and never looked back. He finished one short of a career-high with a season-high 13 strikeouts in seven innings, with Sosa's homer accounting for the lone run.

Santana picked up at least one strikeout in each of the seven innings he worked, striking out the side in both the second and sixth frames. Amazingly, all 13 of his strikeouts were of the swinging variety, which is what can happen when Santana's second-to-none fastball-changeup combination is truly clicking. It was the 35th time in Santana's career that he's reached double-digit strikeouts, with No. 34 coming last time out against the Indians.

Unlike that start, when Fausto Carmona tossed a complete-game shutout to slap Santana with a hard-luck loss, the Twins' lineup provided him with some run support. After Sosa put the Rangers up 1-0, Justin Morneau took the lead with a two-run homer in the fourth inning and then added a three-run bomb in the next frame to put the Twins up 5-1. With Santana exiting after setting the Rangers down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning, Torii Hunter tacked on a two-run shot in the eighth inning to make it 7-1.

Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan combined for five more strikeouts in two innings of relief to lock down the victory, with Santana improving his record to 5-4 despite receiving more than three runs of offensive support for just the third time in 10 starts. Along with lowering his ERA to 3.05, Santana reclaimed the league lead in strikeouts with 80, overtaking Erik Bedard and C.C. Sabathia. Here's how his current numbers compare through the same point in previous seasons:

YEAR     GS     W     L       IP      ERA     SO     BB     HR     OAVG
2004     10     2     2     54.2     5.60     48     17     10     .301
2005     10     5     2     68.1     3.82     83      8      8     .228
2006     10     4     4     68.1     3.42     75     14      8     .240
2007     10     5     4     65.0     3.05     80     18     10     .222

Santana has traditionally been a slow starter, but this year he turned in a fine April and has been even better in May. The result is the best ERA of his career through 10 starts (although a league-wide drop in scoring has helped), but aside from carrying ugly numbers into June during his first full season in the rotation, Santana more or less found his groove by late May in both 2005 and 2006. In fact, it's remarkable how similar Santana's numbers through 10 starts have been in the past three seasons.

He won 5, 4, and 5 games. Pitched 68.1, 68.1, and 65 innings. Posted ERAs of 3.82, 3.42, and 3.05. Racked up 83, 75, and 80 strikeouts. Served up 8, 8, and 10 homers. And allowed opponents to bat .228, .240, and .222 against him. As was the case at the end of April, not only does Santana have the rest of the league right where he wants them for another Cy Young award, he's on track for the best season of his career. Oh, and the game's other hero is playing pretty well too.

With a pair of homers Morneau now ranks second among AL hitters with 13 long balls, behind only Alex Rodriguez (who blasted 14 in April alone). Morneau is sporting a .285/.362/.570 line through 45 games, which is actually better than the MVP-winning .321/.375/.559 line he finished last season with once the league-wide drop in scoring is accounted for. Of course, Morneau wasn't hitting nearly that well last May, so here's how his current pace stacks up with last season's performance at this stage:

YEAR      G      PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     HR     RBI     RUN
2006     40     165     .243     .303     .473      9      34      19
2007     45     196     .285     .362     .570     13      32      32

Morneau actually had more RBIs at this point last season despite not being particularly good, but the rest of his numbers are up significantly this time around. Interestingly, through the Twins' first 45 games back in 2005, Morneau was hitting .319/.364/.588. However, he had played in just 31 of those games thanks to getting beaned in the head by Ron Villone during the season's first series and went on to post a horrific .213/.285/.388 line for the remainder of the schedule.

With an ugly 6.37 ERA lingering as the last impression he left with the team and a slew of top-notch pitching prospects coming up through the system behind him, Scott Baker was surely aware when he took the mound in Milwaukee Saturday that it might be the beginning of his last chance to keep himself in the Twins' long-term plans. Called up from Triple-A ahead of Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey, Baker confidently stepped into the rotation for Sidney Ponson and turned in an impressive effort.

 IP     H     R     ER     BB     SO     HR     PIT
8.1     6     2      2      0      4      2      96

He pounded the strike zone, throwing 74 percent of his offerings for strikes, handing out zero walks, and recording 25 outs on 96 pitches. Baker certainly wasn't dominant, but it was the sort of outing that shows why the Twins turned to him as Ponson's replacement, rather than go with Garza or Slowey. Of course, it was also the sort of outing that shows why trusting young pitchers like Baker was a better idea than messing around with Ponson or Ramon Ortiz in the first place.

Judging from the comments left here and the e-mails I've received on the subject, it's clear that Baker's performance last season convinced a huge percentage of Twins fans that he'll never be a good major-league pitcher. In fact, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a fan base turn so quickly and strongly on a young player based on one bad half season. I've been relatively steadfast in my support of Baker and, while it was just one game, Saturday's start against the Brewers showed why: Baker can pitch.

When he's going well, Baker throws strikes, changes speeds, attacks hitters with a diverse arsenal of pitches, and misses a fair number of bats in the process. However, while he was at his best Saturday against a strong lineup, Baker's faults were also on display if you looked hard enough. Both Milwaukee runs came on solo homers, with J.J. Hardy taking Baker deep two batters into the game and Bill Hall homering in the ninth inning.

Hall's homer caused Ron Gardenhire to pull Baker two outs away from a complete game despite the fact that the Twins were still up three runs with no one on base and Baker was still four pitches short of the century mark. When Gardenhire brought Joe Nathan in to replace Baker, Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven repeatedly told the television audience that it was a save situation. It wasn't. Because Nathan didn't start the inning, the tying run would have to have been on deck for a save to be in play.

With no one on base when Baker exited up 5-2, that wasn't the case. However, I'm not bringing up Nathan's non-save to criticize Bremer and Blyleven (although it certainly seems like something a pair of baseball announcers should know). Instead, my point is that Gardenhire yanked Baker with no real danger present. The bases were empty, his pitch count was low, and he needed to record two outs without allowing three runs to score.

Pulling Baker on the verge of a complete game isn't a particularly big deal either way (although it's silly if a "save" was behind it in any way), but it shows that perhaps Gardenhire perceives him as a pitcher who can implode quickly. And in a way, he's right. Baker's 11 ground-ball outs were a career-high and just the second time he's reached double digits, yet he still served up two homers and two doubles, and saw several hard-hit balls find gloves among his seven fly-ball outs.

As one of the most extreme fly-ball pitchers in baseball, Baker is more susceptible than most to a big inning sidetracking an otherwise strong outing. When a ground-ball pitcher is cruising along and leading by three runs, it takes a string of hits to get him in trouble. When a fly-ball pitcher is cruising along and leading by three runs, it takes two baserunners to put a serious game-tying threat in play. None of that takes away from Baker's start, but it's important as he goes forward in the rotation.

Baker's outing showed why he deserved another chance, but it also showed why he'll likely always be walking a relatively thin line as a quality middle-of-the-rotation starter. After Saturday's start, Baker now sports a 5.02 ERA and 99-to-30 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 145 career innings. Those are decent enough numbers through the first 26 starts of a young pitcher's career, but the homers he allows (24 so far over that span) will go a long way toward determining whether he can bring that ERA closer to 4.00.