Johan Santana, Super-Stopper, Delivers

Johan Santana was squared around to bunt. The pitch from Cub pitcher Sean Marshall came in and Santana quickly slid his hands down on the bat to swing away.  Santana’s bat is sawed off and the ball heads up the middle.  The ball and the the barrel of Santana’s broken bat skitter past the confused Marshall right next to each other.  Cub shortstop Ronny Cedeno prepares to field the ball, but before he can, the ball strikes the broken bat barrel and pops up in the air.  The delay from this freakish collision of ball and bat shard is all the hustling Santana needs as he legs it out to first safely.  Moments later Santana is hustling again, scoring from second base on a two out, two RBI single from David Wright.  Santana’s bizarre single allows the Mets to turn the tide from a 2-0 Cub lead to a 2-2 tie.  Appropriately, it was perhaps the most significant hit of the Mets 2008 season, which in total has been just as bizarre as that moment.

And for once, the good luck snowballed.  In the next inning, the sixth, Delgado dropped a perfectly placed popup into no man’s land in left field, just inside the third base line, for a double. Then Ramon Castro delivers a perfectly placed dribbler toward first base, forcing Cub pitcher Chad Gaudin to field it, which he did poorly, with an erroneous backhanded flip.  This opened the door for the festive big hit of the inning, a “kielbasa” from Jose Reyes that gave the Mets a 6-2 lead.  A “kielbasa” is a term which I’ve invented for a bases clearing triple.  Sort of like a “salami”, actually rarer than a salami (ie grand slam) but still a great and tasty treat for your team to enjoy.  Reyes’s kielbasa was an appropriate 200th hit for him on the season. (Reyes became only the second Met ever to reach that mark, joining Lance Johnson, who had 227 in 1996).

The Mets held on to win 6-2.  Santana delivered a lot more than the freak single.  He threw a career high 125 pitches, and struck out 10.  More importantly, he bounced back from a somewhat shaky opening in which he allowed a string of four doubles in the first three innings.  After the Mets squared it at 2-2 in the fifth Santana slammed the door on the Cubs, getting more powerful as the game progressed.  Santana showed no sign of the intense pressure placed on his shoulders, he was one cool customer when the Mets needed him the most. 

Santana also had to keep his emotions in check despite the maddeningly atrocious umpire work of Phil Cuzzi behind the plate.  Cuzzi’s strike zone madness came to a head in the eighth inning, when Santana clearly struck out Mark DeRosa, yet Cuzzi’s strike-calling arm suffered a temporary paralysis.  Santana did not pout or protest, despite being up at around 118 pitches, he just manned up and earned a groundout from Casey McGehee (after a towering foul ball in the loge section that didn’t miss by much), getting out of the inning unharmed at 125 pitches as Met nation finally exhaled.

The term “must win” has got to be one of the most overused phrases in sports.  Personally I go with a very straight up definition - to me its not a “must win” unless you’re actually facing elimination in that game.  But with the Mets on the skids of late, with their mental state fragile, with Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden looming in the next two games, tonight’s start by Santana, the Mets ace, was considered a “must win” by 98% of text poll respondents during the game.  Suffice it to say, it was the biggest game of the season so far, and Santana proved he’s worth every dime of his huge contract.

With the Phillies dropping a game at home tonight, the Mets have clawed their way back into the NL East, now trailing by 1.5 games.  And as I’m writing this a Steve Pearce 2-run home run (off former Mets reliever Guillermo Mota, who heard many a boo at Shea no less!) has nosed the Pirates ahead of the Brewers 5-4 in the eight inning.  (Now as I edit this the Brewers have tied the game at 5-5)  But if the Pirates can pull it out the Mets will have a 2 game lead in the wild card chase.  It would be a stunning trifecta in one night that puts the Mets back in a great shape for the playoffs and puts the talk of chokerdom on hold…at least for the time being! There is still time for the pendulum to swing either way, of course.

This emotional high comes only 24 hours after a huge emotional low last night, after a stunning 9-5 loss to the Cubs had SNY’s Ron Darling humorously saying “the chum is in the water.” (In reference to the shark-like media descending on the Mets with “choke” talk).   Rookie Jonathan Niese pitched poorly, climaxing with what has been a most damaging theme for the Mets of late, the “pitcher salami,” which came off the bat of Jason Marquis, on a brutal hanging lollipop of a curveball.  There have only been three grand slams by pitchers in all of MLB in the last five years, and all three of them were hit at Shea by opposing picthers; Dontrelle Willis last year, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners earlier this year, and then Marquis last night.  Shea has never seen a Met Pitcher Salami, nor a no hitter by a Met pictcher, nor a three home run game from a Met hitter.  Maybe it is time to tear the stadium down and start again!!  Oh well, at least we’ve had some good kielbasas.

Finally, I’d like to respond to Kevin’s question from my last blog, “do the Mets have the starting pitching to contend in the playoffs?”  I think their three man rotation of Santana, Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfrey can go toe to toe with anyone.  Pedro Martinez in the fourth spot is an obvious question mark, but an effective, adrenaline-fueled, 5-inning outing is not out of the realm of possibility.  Santana is slated to pitch on Sunday, the last game of the season, but only if the Mets need that game to get into the playoffs.  Should they lock up that wild card before Sunday, Santana would rest and start the first game of the divisional series. I don’t think the Mets should pitch Santana on Sunday if they have the wild card but are still able to win or tie for the NL East; Santana as your game one starter is too valuable to monkey around, just suck it up and bring on the Cubs in that case!

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Last post (s) by Mark Reichman

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