The top 10 moments of Johan Santana's career

MINNEAPOLIS -- Johan Santana's career may not (yet) have carried him into the National Baseball Hall of Fame due to his injury-shortened career, but when he was in his prime, with that signature changeup tying hitters into knots again and again, few could stand in the way of his sheer dominance.

Twelve years might not sound like a short career, but the twilight of the left-hander's career could have made for a much more graceful downswing had the shoulder issues not suddenly struck him down. Still, he carved indelible legacies in the stories of both teams whose uniforms he wore, and in this list of top 10 moments of Santana's career, we'll look at the impacts he had on both the Twins and the Mets.

1. The first no-hitter in Mets history
June 1, 2012

Santana's greatest triumph on the mound was unforgettable and historic -- yet bittersweet with the benefit of hindsight. The 33-year-old left-hander, coming off a shoulder surgery, didn't have the gaudy strikeout numbers of his prime but carried a strong 2.75 ERA into this June start at Citi Field against the Cardinals. He had more than enough to treat the crowd of 27,069 on hand to a dose of Mets history.

None of the great pitchers in the franchise's then-50-year history -- not Tom Seaver, not Dwight Gooden, not Jerry Koosman -- had thrown a no-hitter. That changed that evening. Carlos Beltran's liner was ruled just foul in the sixth inning, preserving the effort, and Mike Baxter's all-out, body-sacrificing catch at the left-field wall in the seventh made things seem all the more possible.

Santana's 134th pitch of the night dove past David Freese's swing for strike three, and the feat was complete -- but at what cost? It's widely speculated that such a high pitch count, a mere two months after his return from injury, had to do with why he posted an 8.27 ERA over the next 10 starts, finished the season on the injured list, required another shoulder surgery the following spring and never again pitched in the Majors.

2. The triple crown
2006

At this point, Santana was already one of the foremost pitchers in the American League, if not all of baseball. He'd already won the 2004 Cy Young Award, finished third in the race a year later and had led the AL in strikeouts in both seasons. Statistically, the '06 season might not have matched the lofty standard of his breakout '04, but the stars aligned for Santana to take a place in the record books.

A comparatively tough April gave way to vintage Santana form down the stretch of the season, and he ended up the runaway leader in the league in ERA (2.77) and strikeouts (245). It all came down to wins, and the left-hander had one losing decision among his final 11 to collect enough to make himself a serious contender for the Triple Crown.

He entered his final start on Sept. 26 needing one win to ensure he'd end the season in a tie, at minimum, with Yankees right-hander Chien-Ming Wang. Santana delivered with eight strong innings at the Metrodome against the Royals, securing not only an AL triple crown, but the first MLB triple crown in pitching since Dwight Gooden in 1985.

3. The 17-strikeout outing
Aug. 19, 2007

This was Santana at his very best -- and it ended up being one of his final career performances in a Twins uniform at the Metrodome. The Rangers simply couldn't touch Santana's changeup, and it was evident from the jump, as the left-hander struck out five of the first six batters he faced and tallied at least two Ks in each of the first five frames.

The first hit off Santana didn't come until the fifth, and though he didn't collect a strikeout in the sixth -- leaving him at 11 -- he came back to whiff the side in the seventh before he hit the mound again for the eighth, dispatching Gerald Laird, Nelson Cruz and Jarrod Saltalamacchia in order on swinging strikeouts to reach a career-high 17. That set a new Twins record that still stands to this day.

4. The playoff victory
Oct. 3, 2004

Nineteen long Twins playoff games ago, before the lengthiest postseason losing streak in the North American men's "big four" sports leagues took hold, Santana took the mound at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the AL Division Series and outdueled future Hall of Famer Mike Mussina for seven shutout frames, leading the Twins to a 2-0 victory and an early advantage in the best-of-five series.

It wasn't the prettiest effort, as Santana allowed nine hits and a walk, with at least one Yankees batter reaching base in all seven of his innings, but four double plays -- including Torii Hunter throwing out Jorge Posada at home plate -- helped the Cy Young winner get the job done. Needless to say, Yankee Stadium in October has been decidedly less kind to the Twins since then -- and Minnesota hasn't won a playoff game at all since Santana's effort.

5. Saving the Mets' season ... on an injured leg
Sept. 27, 2008

The Mets' playoff hopes -- and the storied life of Shea Stadium -- were slipping away at the end of the '08 season, and the club faced a do-or-die matchup against the Marlins in the penultimate game of the regular season, clinging to life in the Wild Card race. In stepped Santana, the National League's ERA champion, ready to take the mound again on only three days' rest after having thrown a season-high 125 pitches against the Cubs in his previous outing.

That's the kind of situation the Mets had prepared for by trading for Santana, and after manager Jerry Manuel gave his ace the nod, the left-hander struck out nine in a complete-game, 117-pitch shutout, keeping his team alive for the final day of the season. Even more remarkably, it was later revealed that Santana twirled that gem while suffering from a torn meniscus in his left knee that required offseason surgery -- not that he pitched like it.

6. The second half of the 2004 season
July-September 2004

This is what it looks like to close out a Cy Young campaign in style. The Twins ran away with the AL Central in the second half for their third straight division title, and Santana led the charge by going the entire half of the season without a losing effort, finishing his season 13-0 in his last 15 starts with a 1.21 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 55 hits allowed in those 104 1/3 innings. The Twins won all but one of his starts in that span as he cemented his status as the runaway Cy Young winner, the Twins' first since Frank Viola in 1988.

7. Moving to the National League
2008

Following months of speculation, the Twins finally moved their longtime ace to the Mets in exchange for Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, Philip Humber and Deolis Guerra following the '07 season, with the Mets inking Santana to the six-year, $137.5 million that the Twins couldn't offer him. The club's new ace thrived in the bigger spotlight of New York, leading the Senior Circuit with a career-best 2.53 ERA in a league-high (and career-high) 234 1/3 frames and bringing the Mets to the cusp of an NL Wild Card berth. It marked his fifth straight season with a top-five Cy Young finish, and his final one before injuries began to take hold.

8. The changeup arrives in full force
July 28, 2002

Before the 2002 season, Santana was just looking to survive the big leagues -- first, as a Rule 5 Draft pick who needed to stay at the MLB level for a full season, and then, as a young pitcher looking to establish a foothold in a starting rotation. At the start of '02, he worked in the Minors to add and trust a changeup in any count -- and when he came back to the Twins, he was a different pitcher.

After striking out only 92 hitters in 129 2/3 frames across his first two MLB seasons, Santana showed off a newfound swing-and-miss skillset, evident at an elite level for the first time in a July start against the Blue Jays, when he lasted eight shutout innings and allowed two hits while racking up 13 strikeouts -- a glimpse of the utter dominance to come once the Twins committed him to a rotation spot.

9. Toe to toe with Pedro
Aug. 1, 2004

Amid Santana's massive breakout in the second half of 2004, this might as well have been the ceremonial passing of the torch from the longtime class of the AL to the new standard-bearer of the Junior Circuit. Martinez, the three-time Cy Young Award winner, allowed two runs and struck out 11 for the visiting Red Sox, but Santana gutted out one more inning than the future first-ballot Hall of Famer, striking out 12 in eight frames, as his offense gave him run support against reliever Mike Timlin to emerge triumphant in the pitchers' duel.

10. The first (and only) home run
July 6, 2010

Considering Santana was an AL pitcher for the first half of his career, it's not surprising that he was never much of a hitter once he joined the Mets -- but don't forget that he was originally an outfielder as a youth in Venezuela before the Astros signed him to pitch as a professional. It took Santana until nearly the end of his career to go yard, but he finally knocked one out of the park in his penultimate season, clanging a line drive off the right-field foul pole against Reds hurler Matt Maloney -- left-on-left, no less -- to take his first and only trot around the bases.