Ervin Santana powered the Los Angeles Angels to a 2-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday night in the second game of a three game interleague series. Santana threw a one-hit shutout, striking out five and only walking one batter.
The Diamondbacks did not have a base-runner until the seventh inning, when Justin Upton singled to break up Santana's perfect game. Arizona only had two base runners total on Saturday night, the other came in the ninth inning when Miguel Montero drew a pitch-hit walk.
The gem pitched by Santana (4-7) overshadowed a strong performance by Joe Saunders. The left-hander gave up two earned runs over six inning in a losing effort. Saunders (4-5) gave up eight hits and walked four batters on the night.
After being shutout on Friday night, the Angels got on the board early when Mark Trumbo blasted a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Saunders was one pitch away from getting out of the inning, but Trumbo hammered a three-two breaking ball off Saunders over the left field fence.
The Angels never looked back behind the strong performance of Santana. Santana came into tonight's game with an ERA of 5.74 and allowed seven earned runs in his last start against Colorado.
The rubber game of the series is scheduled for tomorrow at 12:35 PM. Arizona will send Ian Kennedy (5-6, 4.32) to the mound against Garrett Richards (1-0, 1.38) of Los Angeles.