AaronGleeman.com

I stopped being shocked by Johan Santana's greatness a long time ago, perhaps because he's made it all look so routine. Like a 50-point game from Michael Jordan or a sexy picture of Jessica Alba, watching Santana shut down a lineup has become almost expected, which I suppose is the true sign of greatness. When you do something spectacular and it surprises absolutely no one, you've truly reached rarefied air. And Santana has been there for years.

All of which is what makes his performance yesterday afternoon so amazing. As he struck out the side in the eighth inning for his 15th, 16th, and 17th strikeouts, it hit me that Santana has never been better. He has three strikeout crowns and two ERA titles in the past three seasons, no pitcher in the past 60 years has a better career winning percentage, and only some misguided voters kept him from winning three straight Cy Young awards.

Yet as he put the finishing touches of his extraordinary afternoon by racking up back-to-back-to-back swinging strikeouts on Gerald Laird, Nelson Cruz, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the eighth inning, Santana somehow went even higher. It was the masterpiece from a virtuoso who's been responsible for a brilliant work of art nearly every fifth day for five years, and it came with many of the greatest players in Twins history in attendance as the 1987 World Series team looked on.

Only two hits off the bat of Sammy Sosa kept Santana from perfection, and only a relatively high pitch count and Ron Gardenhire's discretion kept him from challenging the all-time single-game strikeout record. And he did it all while clinging to a 1-0 lead, because only Michael Cuddyer's second-inning homer stopped the tour de force from simply being one of many outstanding performances by Twins pitchers to have gone for naught this season.

Santana struck out every Rangers hitter at least once, getting Laird, Michael Young, and Marlon Byrd three times apiece. Four of the 17 punch-outs came on just three pitches, all but two of them were of the swinging variety, including the final 10, and the Rangers swung and missed at more pitches (32) than they took for balls (29). Santana set a new career-high and broke the Twins' all-time record of 15, which had been held by Bert Blyleven, Camilo Pascual, Jerry Koosman, and Joe Decker.

In the entire history of baseball, a pitcher has totaled more than 17 strikeouts just 20 times and only Randy Johnson has racked up more strikeouts (18) without throwing at least nine innings. "I didn't try to do anything different," Santana said. "I was just trying to stay aggressive, get ahead in the count, and throw my fastball for strikes." Asked about Joe Nathan coming in to pitch the ninth inning, Santana said: "He's one of the best closers in the game and I trust him, just like I trust all my teammates."

Pitching coach Rick Anderson revealed that just four of Santana's 112 offerings were sliders. Throwing a 17-strikeout gem while using a fastball or changeup 108 times in 112 pitches might seem like an impossible combination, but only if you've never seen Santana pull the string. "He's got such great arm action with everything, so it's tough to lay off of it," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "The only thing you can do is sit on the changeup, and if he throws you three straight fastballs, you're screwed."

And Washington should know. Between managing the Rangers yesterday afternoon and being on the A's coaching staff in years past, he's been on hand for three of the 19 starts in which Santana has totaled a "Game Score" of at least 80. If you're unfamiliar with the Bill James invention, Game Score is a formula that attempts to quantify how good a pitcher's performance was by looking at strikeouts, hits, walks, innings, and runs. Here are Santana's top Game Scores:

##     YR      DATE      OPP      IP     H     R     BB     SO     HR     PIT
95     07     AUG 19     TEX     8.0     2     0      0     17      0     112
92     04     JUL  6     KAN     9.0     3     0      2     13      0     114
89     06     SEP  5     TAM     8.0     2     0      1     12      0      95
89     05     AUG 12     OAK     9.0     3     0      1      9      0     110
88     05     JUN  8     ARI     9.0     4     0      0      9      0     106
88     02     JUL 28     TOR     8.0     2     0      3     13      0     118
85     05     SEP 17     CHW     8.0     4     0      2     13      0     113
85     04     SEP  3     KAN     7.0     1     0      1     11      0     106
84     06     AUG 15     CLE     8.0     3     0      1      9      0      99
84     05     SEP  3     CLE     8.0     2     1      0     10      0     100
83     06     JUN  2     OAK     8.0     2     1      0      9      1     103
83     04     JUL 17     KAN     8.0     1     1      4      9      0     115
82     05     AUG 23     CHW     8.0     3     0      1      7      0      95
82     04     SEP 19     BAL     8.0     7     0      0     14      0     103
81     07     APR  8     CHW     7.0     1     0      3      9      0      97
81     06     JUN 13     BOS     8.0     5     1      0     13      1     102
81     03     AUG 13     CLE     8.0     4     0      1      8      0     111
80     07     JUN 19     NYM     9.0     4     0      0      1      0      92
80     04     AUG 23     TEX     8.0     4     1      1     11      1     109

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, we know that Santana's Game Score of 95 is the highest in baseball history for someone who didn't throw at least nine innings, beating a 15-strikeout start from Nolan Ryan that earned a 93 Game Score back in 1989. Only seven other pitchers have ever topped a 90 Game Score in fewer than nine innings and no one did it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, or 2007. Before Santana yesterday afternoon, that is.