The Santana Express Rolls On; Royals Beat Indians 3-2

This Ervin Santana business is getting serious you guys.

Ervin was again brilliant, tossing seven shutout innings with five strikeouts and no walks in a 3-2 Royals victory. He now has five walks in five games started in a month's work. To give some perspective, Jonathan Sanchez walked five or more in a game three times last year. Santana lowered his ERA to 2.00 and retired the last seven hitters he faced. Santana only faced two real threats in the game. In the second, the Indians had runners reach second and third with one out, only to have Santana strike out the next two hitters. In the third, Cleveland loaded the bases with one out, only to have Santana induce Nick Swisher into a double play.

Salvador Perez got the Royals on the board with his first home run of the year, an opposite field shot that honestly looked like a routine pop fly when it left his bat. But you see, the ball jumped over the fence (and it cleared the wall by more than a few rows) because it was scared of Sal. SALVADOR PEREZ FACTS.

The Royals added an extra run in the bottom of the seventh with a two-out rally. Gordon singled, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch, and Indians pitchers went on to walk the next three hitters - including Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded - to force in a run. The Indians went through a stupefying five different pitchers in the inning, grinding the game to a halt, and in part, forcing Santana out of the game by boring him to death. But hey, Terry Francona has to justify the big bucks he makes.

Kelvin Herrera was wobbly in the eighth, but escaped unscathed, but Holland allowed two runs, and had the game-tying run 90 feet away when he struck out Jason Kipnis on a check-swing. Late innings are still a high-wire act, but at least we aren't falling yet.