Whewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

That sound emanating from downtown Minneapolis on Sunday was one huge sigh of relief following not just a good performance, but a dominant performance from Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Ervin Santana, who pitched 7 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and no walks.

That sigh no doubt came from Twins manager Paul Molitor and pitching coach Neil Allen, who would be faced with a difficult decision if Santana had another poor outing with Tyler Duffey pitching well and Phil Hughes ready to come off the disabled list pretty soon.

That sigh no doubt also came from the Twins bullpen, who did not have to come into a game before the seventh inning for the first time since August 20.

In fact, that sigh no doubt came from the position players as well as the victory got the Twins to .500 in August, which gave the team just its second nonlosing month of the season. The Twins went 21-7 in May but had losing records in April, June and July.

That sigh also no doubt came from Twins fans as Trevor May got a strikeout to end the game after the Astros came storming back with two outs in the 9th on a long three-run homer and a two-run homer to reduce a 7-run lead to 2, but May made sure that the Astros would not get the tying run to the plate and that closer Glen Perkins would not be forced to come into the game.

But maybe the biggest sigh of relief came from the Twins' front office, who saw Santana finally pitch like the pitcher they thought they were getting when they signed him to the richest free agent contract in franchise history.  Santana's 10 strikeouts were a season high for Twins pitchers, topping the 9 strikeouts done by Kyle Gibson, Phil Hughes and twice by Trevor May, who was the last Twins pitcher to have a 10 K, 0 BB game, on Sept. 14, 2014. That of course was the last time a Twins pitcher had 10 Ks in a game period.

I almost forgot one other sigh of relief, which was the one coming from the emergency responders and medical staff at Target Field once they realized no one had been hit by the screaming line drive hit by Miguel Sano into the left-field stands. A few more of those, and people will be pining for netting placed in front of the outfield stands. Forget about extending it around foul territory.