Ervin Santana Throws No-Hitter for Angels; David Wright Leads Mets to 3rd Straight Over Reds

Players of the Day for Wednesday, July 27, 2011

American League

Santana: No Hits

The LA Angels keep nipping the heels of the Texas Rangers in the AL West. On Wednesday, they had something more to cheer about than being in second place.

Ervin Santana threw a no-hitter at the Cleveland Indians, in their home park, a place and a team against which he had never won.

The game began in dubious fashion, after the Angels had gone down in order in the top of the first inning. Santana got leadoff hitter Ezequiel Carrera to ground to short, only to have shortstop Erick Aybar throw wildly to first. Carrera stole second and after an out, went to third on Asdrubal Cabrera's ground out to second. Then Santana uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Carrera to trot home with a run, despite the Indians getting no hits.

After that, however, Santana was all business, getting Travis Hafner to strike out to end the inning, then putting down the next 19 batters he faced before allowing a walk with one out in the 8th. He struck out the next two batters and got the side in order for his first career no-hitter and the third this season in the majors.

Santana struck out 10, issued the one walk and improved to 6-8. The other no-hitters thrown this year were by Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano, against the White Sox on May 3 and Detroit's Justin Verlander against Toronto on May 7.

Santana's 3-1 win got the Angels to within two games of the Rangers, who were beaten at home, 7-2, by the Twins.

National League

Wright: Lots of hits

With Carlos Beltran traded to the Giants earlier in the day, the Mets weren't supposed to beat up on the Reds. Then again, they weren't supposed to beat them in the first two games of the series - with Beltran - but they did.

Recently returned from a long stint on the DL, David Wright came through with a single, a sac fly and a three-run homer in four at-bats, driving in four runs as the Mets cruised to their third straight win at the Great American Ball Park, beating the Reds, 8-2.

Wright, an all star third baseman who went to the DL on May 15, returned on July 22 and has been scorching the ball, hitting safely in six straight games, going 12-for-28 (.429) over that span with two home runs and 11 RBI.

The loss knocked the 4th-place Reds 5 1/2 back of the new leader in the NL Central, Milwaukee. The Cardinals are 1/2 game out and the Pirates are hanging tough, just 1 1/2 behind the Brewers. The Mets are 12 1/2 behind the Phillies in the East and trail Atlanta by 7 games in the wild card race.

STREAKS: Seattle ended the mid-summer nightmare of 17 straight losses with a 9-2 win against the Yankees. emilio Bonifacio extended his MLB-best hitting streak to 25 games. Boston's Dustin Pedrioa has the longest in the American League this season, at 24 straight.