The Santana Show

I hadn't been to a game in well over a month for one reason or another. Usually I don't miss the entire month of June, but things happen. Tuesday night's game against the Reds was the next game up on my package, and there was no way in hell I was missing it, no matter who was on the field that night. Turned out it was Johan Santana starting for the Mets. I had only seen Santana a couple of times in '08 and just about missed him completely in '09. But as it seems every year that there's usually one guy who starts most of the games I go to in a given season, such has it been with Santana in 2010. Tuesday's game was my 8th of the season, and the 3rd time I've seen Santana.

If there was ever a night to see Santana, last night was the night.

You don't think much about these things early on in the game, and I certainly didn't think about it at all when Brandon Phillips led off the game with a double into the gap in left-center. After Cabrera bunted him over, you almost took for granted that Votto was going to get his bat on something and get that run home. But he didn't. Santana got him on an ugly, excuse-me swing, and Rolen followed by flying out to end the inning.

Quiet through the first few innings, as Reds starter Matt Maloney (whoever he is) was matching Santana. He wasn't getting the first or second pitch flyouts that Santana was, the Mets were working him intensely, but he wasn't getting in jams and certainly wasn't giving up runs. In fact, until Ruben Tejada singled in the 3rd, the Mets hadn't had a hit. So, of course, with Santana up to bunt, Tejada promptly got thrown out trying to steal (My friend contended bunt and run, but I think Tejada screwed up). Well, fine. There goes that. But there was Santana, fouling off pitch after pitch from Maloney. After about 6 or so, I'd lost count, he'd started to get the timing down. After a few more, my friend conjectured that Santana was going to put one in the Pepsi Porch. I didn't think that possible, but on the next pitch, Santana cracked a good shot down the right field line that hooked foul. All right, close. Nonetheless, that didn't make the next pitch any less of a shock.
This pitch was hit similar to the last one, but it was a little higher, and a little farther, and a little straighter, and it was hooking...CLANG! Right into the foul pole for a Home Run! Holy Crap! Well, if nobody else will score for him, why not do it himself!? Santana appeared ready to faint when he came around the bases, probably not from rounding them, but because I don't think he expected to do that either. I don't think anyone had any problems with it, though.

But with that lead, albeit slim, Santana went back to work. And by back to work, I mean he didn't give the Reds much of anything the rest of the night. I know he'd made some adjustments to his windup or whatever, but I think the talk of his demise and how he's no longer an ace may have just gotten to him. He was out there with a bit of a chip on his shoulder these last couple of starts. I think what all the talking has done has made him mad and mean, and he's reflecting that on the mound. He wasn't blowing the ball by people, he was just making everyone make paltry contact and hit lazy fly ball after lazy fly ball, which in this ballpark is going to be an out every time (except when Jason Bay whiffs in the 9th inning). After Phillips' double, Santana allowed a walk to Votto in the 4th, a 2-out single to Cabrera in the 6th, followed by another walk to Votto, and a walk to Miguel Cairo in the 8th, and a single to Rolen in the 9th, and that was pretty much it. Phillips was the only guy who got as far as 3rd base. More impressive was the fact that just about every out came on the 1st or 2nd pitch. By comparison, Maloney had thrown about 60 pitches after 3 innings, and was well over 100 by time he came out in the 6th. Santana didn't crack 100 pitches until the 9th inning.
And there was that 9th inning. Santana had, what was for him, a jam in the 8th when he walked Cairo and fell behind Phillips, but he rebounded to get the next two batters with two guys warming up in the bullpen. The conjecture was that Santana was finished after the 8th and Rodriguez would unfortunately come in for the 9th, unless the Mets could score a couple more runs. But the inning came and nobody was in the bullpen. The inning past and nobody even stood up out there. So, Santana would get the 9th. The crowd was already chanting "JO-HAN! JO-HAN!" in the 8th inning, so you can imagine how loud everyone got when he came out for the 9th. He got Votto very quickly (another 1st pitch out), but then came the Rolen single and the almost unconscionable Jason Bay error, and there was Rodriguez in the pen, and there was everyone screaming for Jerry to stay in the dugout. Nonetheless, Santana was up to 111 pitches and things appeared to be slipping away. Here came Manuel. Here came the boos. No signal went up. Jerry walked away with Santana still on the mound. I was pretty sure that if he tried to pull Santana there, fans would have stormed the field and torn him apart. 2 pitches later, the game was over. True to form, Santana got both Gomes and Stubbs out on the first pitch, Gomes on a screamer that was headed for disasterville if not for a fine play by Ike Davis (otherwise we were looking at 3-1 and Rodriguez surely in the game), and Stubbs on a harmless grounder to Wright. And that put away what was easily the best game I've been to so far this season.
This, hopefully, was a statement from Santana, that the old guy we're used to seeing isn't gone. He was injured last season, but you can expect something special out of him in the 2nd half. We'll see if this is true, but if his start last night was any indication, he's going to be fun to watch the rest of the way this year.

This Already Happened!

I guess it doesn't matter where they play, if the Mets ever play a game against the Marlins where they fall behind, peck and scrape and fight back to tie the game in a late inning, it's just about inevitable that the Marlins will somehow anticlimactically win the game in the bottom of the 9th in some stupid fashion. It's a Walk-off HR from Cody Ross (who appears to be Joe McEwing against other teams, but Barry Bonds against the Mets), or it's a scratch single by Chris Coghlan, or it's Hanley Ramirez running around the bases. So it wasn't much of a surprise that Dan Uggla came up and poked the winning hit through last night, even after Pedro Feliciano got the first two outs in rapid fashion. It didn't matter what Jerry Manuel decided to do, whether Feliciano pitched to Uggla, Ross, Paulino, Cheech, Chong, Abbott or Costello, the Marlins were going to score in the 9th inning. Because they were playing at "home" against the Mets, and that is how it is ordained to be. And because it's the F-ing Marlins, and because it's a walk off hit against those dastardly Mets, you just knew they celebrated like they just won a title or something, because that's probably the closest they're going to get.

I probably should have seen this one coming, but the Mets have perpetrated too much positive thinking. I was almost lulled to sleep thinking they would come back and tie against this awful Marlins bullpen. I kind of didn't realize what was going on until Cantu hit that double, and even then it didn't hit me. But once Uggla hit his 87-hop Astroturf single that Jose Reyes had no prayer of fielding, it hit me. Oh God! I was following a dead ballgame! Of course this was going to happen!

Predictably, the Mets went to San Juan, where I'm pretty sure they never won a game when it was the Expos "home ballpark" and lost two in a row. Way to keep the good vibes going, guys.

Road Worrisome

Nothing like a nice road trip to a US Protectorate to make you start worrying about the Mets again.

See, these homestands have been so good for the Mets, and that last road trip where they rolled over a pair of doormats really got us pumped up even further, because you thought maybe the Mets were going to pull out of this road trip funk that has plagued them most of the season. But they are playing the Marlins, who already kicked them in the nuts once in their own sorry excuse of a home stadium, and the Mets boast an in-division road record of something like 3-29 this season, so you can imagine how this conglomeration of bad can escalate.

Thus, you have games like last night where nothing goes right.

You figured someone was going to catch up with R.A. Dickey at some point, and of course it was the Marlins, who did their usual pizza party act while beating the Mets in front of a crowd that barely appeared conscious (I'm pretty sure I heard more cheers from the Puerto Rico crowd for the Mets than for the Marlins). I suppose it doesn't make much difference that the Marlins have 4 fans and their stadium is so putrid they decided to stick these games in Puerto Rico. A road game is a road game is a road game and for some reason the Mets seem to look a little bit tardy in these games. It doesn't matter if it's against the Marlins, who, for God's sake the Mets need to start getting a little nasty with, against Ricky Nolasco, who they've faced about 493 times over the past 4 years and they should be hammering mercilessly, but if it's not within their comfort zone at Citi Field, it seems to matter little.

I don't know. Maybe a couple of wins in the next couple of games could serve to make me feel better. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Joie de Vivre

This is #5 of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2010 season.
I know late June isn't exactly the time to start talking about Key Mets Players, but, you see, this is a special case.

I couldn't quite land on who the 5th and final Key Met should have been for the current season. There were too many players who held too important a role to pick just one. Plus there just wasn't enough excitement to really get it up. If the team was sort of haphazardly thrown together, then why exert more energy than necessary. The team was un-finished and my list went un-finished.

However, almost halfway through the season, it's clear who this 5th Key Met is. It's Jose Reyes.

Last season, after Reyes disappeared in May and didn't return, the sentiment towards Reyes, which was tenuous to begin with, seemed to be reaching an alarming level of negativity. Most people I spoke to were tired of Reyes being all sizzle and no steak, and basically considered this season his last chance. And when he came back from his injury and his Thyroid issue and struggled, the naysayers were ready to pounce. "How long before we can just say he sucks?" people were asking. "What sort of trade value do you think he has?"

But eventually, the switch flipped for Reyes. Sometime in late May, those popups turned into line drives, and those line drives started to find gaps, and suddenly, it's 2006 again and Reyes is flying all over the place, leaping and clapping and everything's right with the world. It was a more mature Reyes now, though. You could see it. After he hit a HR against Philadelphia on May 26th, a laser beam into the Mets bullpen, Reyes didn't get homer happy, as he used to do. Instead, that swing stayed level. He kept swinging for line drives, and getting them. Not surprisingly, with Reyes on base, the guys behind him started hitting too, and the end result is that the Mets have been winning games. This was the recipe. Jose Reyes gets on base, makes people sweaty and uncomfortable, and scores a bunch of runs, spurring the Mets on to victory.
More heartening, however, has been the role that Jose has taken on on this ballclub. Because he still exudes that same youthful energy that he's had his entire career, it's easy to forget that he's not a kid anymore. He turned 27 earlier this month, and he's now in his 8th season in the Major Leagues. He's a cornerstone of this era of the Mets, and I think he's begun to realize that. The handshakes and the dancing are still there, and Jose is still Jose, but it seems like he has become a clear leader on this team. You don't see him pop out of the dugout to high-five anyone, now he's staying down the stairs and waiting for people to come back to him. He's smiling, but he's keeping it amongst friends. I still think other players around the league probably don't like him, but that seems to affect him less and less. He's made errors, he's had bad days, but you don't see him pouting or throwing his glove anymore. The energy will probably never go away, but I'm really starting to believe that Reyes is maturing as a person, something we all knew he needed to do in order to succeed. It started when he admitted losing focus, admitted letting things get to him more than they should and letting his exuberance come before his performance. These are things that we're not seeing out of Jose Reyes this season. This season, all I've noticed is that once he came back, he offered no excuses, he's just shut up and played baseball. And as of late, he's been playing baseball pretty damn well.
When we started this blog, we said that Jose Reyes was the most Ballclub player in the Major Leagues, that is, he's the guy who not only plays well, but genuinely looks like he's having fun out there. But for a few seasons, that guy wasn't showing up. It looks like this guy is coming back now. We like that guy. The Mets did really well when he was around. I hope he stays a while.

YAHOO!

Hey, let's keep this going! Long as we possibly can!

I mean, I know this winning streak won't go on forever, but this is the first time since sometime around May, 2007, that you're going into these games almost expecting the Mets to win. Even when they're going up against the Yankees.

Hisanori Takahashi was a little more Hey-Hey-Hisanori, and a little less like the guy you're thinking should go back to the pen, sort of like he was the first time he went up against the Yankees. For the second time, he shut out the Yankees for 6 innings, but this time the Mets bats backed him up, and the Mets bullpen backed him up, and the result was that the Mets, even in the ridiculous bandbox that is Yankees Stadium, came away with a sharp shutout victory.

I feel like I could jump as high as Jose Reyes right now, because every time you think this is over, every time you think the Mets are going to come back to earth, they end up pulling together to pull out a game. Again, I don't know how long this will last, and I don't know if this is just a hot streak that will turn the other way in August, but for now, this is pretty sweet. Especially when they start beating the Yankees.