It’s no secret Ervin Santana’s pitching has improved. But what may be a secret is what he’s done to flip his luck. Santana said he’s pitching the same pitches and hasn’t changing a single thing since the start of the season.
“I had a bad month last month and that was the difference,” Santana said. “Now I’ve found it again and I’m back to pitching like I was before.”
In April, Santana recorded four wins in four. In May he went to two wins in six starts and in June he had one in five. July has brought more of the April Santana back to the Braves, as many of his teammates noted after he pitching a win against the Marlins Wednesday night—his third win in four starts this month.
But Santana credited the bullpen with backing him up and pulling out the team win Wednesday night. Relievers Jordan Walden and Chasen Shreve gave up only one hit in their two combined innings pitched.
Though he admits he has had much better starts lately, he said neither his teammates nor his coaches have told him anything specifically.
“When you’re pitching well like that, the guys don’t talk to you much about it because they don’t want to ruin what you’ve got going on,” Santana said.
Santana agreed that his recent improvement has been a little bit of luck and continued hard work. His current win-loss percentange (.600) is the highest it has been since 2010.
“You have to have good luck and also work hard because you’re doing nothing if you’re working hard and still losing every game. Then you don’t have good luck.”
