Wow. Pitching on short rest, three days after a career-high 125 pitch performance, Johan Santana came up huge with a complete game shutout of the Marlins, winning 2-0. Santana was nothing short of masterful. He was locating his fastball. His changeup was convincing and had a lot of bite on it, and proved to be a devastating strikeout pitch. More than anything, Santana harnessed the emotion of the big spot and allowed the Mets to ride on his back and win with a minimum of offense.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Cub starter Ted Lilly was almost as dominant. Well, for six no-hit innings anyway. While Lou Piniella was going with his “B-team” (without Soriano, Soto, Lee and Ramirez once again) I was thanking the good lord that he elected to go with his usual setup man, Carlos Marmol, in the seventh inning, when the Brewers had a threat going. Marmol pitched the Cubs right out of trouble. But then in the eighth, Piniella put in starter Jason Marquis, a definite deviation from a normal bullpen progression. And it almost had disastrous ramifications for the Mets. Marquis got the bases loaded and the score cut to a 4-2 Cub lead before he was mercifully pulled. Then with Neal Cotts in, a horrible fielding play by shortstop Ronny Cedeno allowed a Prince Fielder popup to fall in to cut the score to 4-3 with the bases loaded.
But then came a performance from Cub reliever Michael Wuertz, which may have saved the Mets season. Wuertz got the last two outs without allowing further damage. The Cubs tacked on some runs in the top of the ninth to give them (and the Mets!) some breathing room. Still, how delighted was I to see the closer Kerry Wood come in to pitch the ninth despite the fact that it was no longer a save situation. Wood slammed the door shut for a 7-3 Cub win, and as he did, the Mets were tied in the wild card chase!
I agree with my colleague Joe Gallo that Piniella’s monkeying with the lineup and resting of regulars (as far as the hitting lineup was concerned anyway) took away from the integrity of the game. Although Piniella did the same thing against the Mets. However, luck was on the Mets side, as were the appearances of Marmol and Wood, who made up for the misuse of Marquis. After Lilly missed a “pitcher salami” (= grand slam by a pitcher) by only a few feet, which would have made it 8-0 Cubs, I had a bad feeling that luck might swing back to the Brewers. Thankfully that was not the case.
So the NL wild card comes down to one game…or actually two games if the Mets and Brewers both win or both lose, in which case there would be a one-game playoff at Shea. Today’s win-win, best case scenario opens the door for more meaningful baseball. Mets fans will have their fingernails in biting range as Oliver Perez takes the mound. Meanwhile Brewers fans hope that another short-rest start from CC Sabathia won’t prove to be one too many.
Most importantly, the Mets control their own destiny, with redemption and humiliation both still within reach. It doesn’t get any better than this!
