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During last night’s win against the Nationals, Johan Santana let up three runs on eight hits, one of which was a homer, while striking out six and walking two through seven innings pitched.
Though the Mets are 5–3 in Santana’s last eight starts, he is just 3–0, including five no decisions.
That said, Santana has not been charged with a loss since June 28, roughly seven weeks ago.
Santana said the following to reporters after last night’s game, regarding:
…the win, and having the bullpen hold down the lead:
“It’s a big relief, it’s good to see we won this game. It’s good to see the bullpen performing well…I trust everybody, and tonight they did a good job.
…i love it, ‘It’s good to see the bullpen performing well,’ i.e., it’s about friggin time, guys, thank you…
…whether he fought Jerry Manuel to stay in the game, instead of being pulled after the seventh inning:
“Well, that’s thing about the National League, you never know what’s going to happen out there…I was told that Murphy would hit and if we get a couple of runs, I’d get that at bat and continue pitching. That wasn’t the case, though, and so Brian pinch hit. But, I was ready, you know, for either call…It turned out to be a good call.”
…his overall performance:
“I felt pretty good tonight. I threw some pitches that stayed up in the strikezone, my change-up wasn’t right, it wasn’t the best tonight, but I was able to stay in the game, battle and throw the right pitch.”
…and that’s the thing about johan, in that, even when he is not sharp, or totally on his game, he is able to command the inning in such a way that he continues to keep his team in the game, which, i assume, is exactly what that phrase is supposed to mean…
…my generation has become so stats oriented at times, i think some people tend to overlook the artistry of what a guy like johan is capable of doing out on the mound…
This season, Santana’s 2.89 ERA is fifth-best in the National League; his 141 strike outs rank him seventh among National League pitchers; and, lastly, he has thrown the fourth-most innings of any pitcher in the league.
When people say that Santana is NOT as good as they claim, this is why. When the team gives him a 2 run lead in the first and he turns around a gives it right back that cant happen. Add to that this is a last place team that we should dominate and a 4-3 HBP walk in win is NOT GOOD. The team did have trouble getting runs and we had many chances and blew them all. The fact that Santana could not keep these bums off the board and was giving up runs as fast as we scored them, is the issue. If we expect to go deep into the playoffs we cant have Santana doing this. LETS GO METS !!!
He didn’t have his changeup yesterday. He did well to limit the damage without his best stuff. THAT is what makes him so great.
Even when he doesn’t have it, he can still be effective. Your expectations are out of whack.
With a team that averages 4.9 runs per game, Santana only limiting the runs to 3 wasn’t the worst possible thing ever. Granted we’re looking for his elusive 0 ER, 0-1 hit, 15 strikeout game but if he’s only giving up 1-3 runs per start at max I wouldn’t complain in the least bit. Blame the offense who I’m pretty sure holds the record for “most blow bases loaded opportunities” this season.
Well, Jerry made a mistake pinch hitting Murphy for Castro in that spot last night. Why pinch hit for him there? Because Saul Rivera is a righty and so is Castro? Big deal. It came back to bite Jerry because then he was forced to remove Santana from the game and send up the immortal offensive all star Brian Schneider to pinch hit. If he lets Castro hit for himself, then at least he could have had Murphy pinch hit for Santana who would have had a better chance at getting a hit.
right on. Mismanaged strategy there and had we lost would have been second guessed forever.
Not gonna lie I had some faith in Murphy but I agree Castro would’ve been fine in that spot.
totally agree. Castro should have hit and as long as he doesn’t hit into a DP, then you can have Murph bat for Santana. escaped one there but still no add’l runs.
smarten up – how do you have the ballz to bash Johan?! It’s like a hobby for some of you – regardless of what he does, figure out something to complain about
yada yada you could say the exact same for the offense about the bums they were facing
I thought it was a good move to pinch hit for Santana in that spot with the bases loaded, but a terrible decision to have Brian Schneider do the pinch hitting. Santana himself is probably a better hitter than Schneider.
i thought the same thing when i saw brian up…
Phillies lost on an single in the bottom of the ninth
Yep. And our buddy Hong Chi Kuo got the win for pitching 2 scoreless innings in relief.
Santana in my opinion is worth every penny. Kept us in the game all night even when he didnt have his best stuff and performing mostly on guile. Glad to see Mighty Joe come in with a scoreless inning and pedro manning up to take down the rightys….not very creative tonight but effective…
I think simplifying the bullpen situation was a good idea, if you leave a guy in even if he gives up a hit (Joe) it’s not that big a deal, these guys are under more pressure if they know that HAVE to get someone out to stay in the game.
That said, anyone and I mean anyone complaining about Santana’s season needs to get their head examined. Without him this team is probably 10 games back.
I agree that jerry needs to simplify the bullpen but show/pedro are L specialists while smith being the R specialist. Ya got Dirty as the setupman that can pitch to both(but his velocity is down and getting pounded) and Heilman who might as well just hand out sunflower seeds all game..and maybe that he would manage to mess up. I understand jerrys reluctance to give the closer role to kunz but pedro taking on both L and R in the ninth for a save..we were lucky he got them out thats all im sayin.
Sanchez hasn’t been ‘dirty’ but he has been effective. Check out his last 7 appearances, he has had just one bad appearance where he hit the first batter. Other than that its been scoreless inning, and he’s even cleaned up someone else’s mess a couple times. He should be given the 8th inning man role again, imo. He just cant seem to handle the closing.
lol, i guess these idiots that complain about Santana, would rather have Kenny Rogers, Steve Trachsel or Victor Zambrano pitching for us.
Santana’s been GREAT this year. How many times has he given up more than 3 runs in a start?
If we lose any of Johan’s games, it’s always because of the hitting or the bullpen; but almost never because of Johan himself.
6 out of his 25 starts he’s given up more than 3 runs and no more than 5 in any of them. But of course you should know that he should be capable of only giving up 2 runs max while striking out 10 and not walking any each game!
He’s improved to cope with the situation of the bullpen as well. I dont have numbers, but he is much more effecient with his pitches now, allowing him to pitch 8 or 9 innings if needed. As an NL starter, giving your manager the option to use you for 9 when the bullpen is falling apart is a huge bonus. Early in the year Johan was going 6-7 IP on 110 pitches, now its 8 or 9.
A lot more strikeouts for him earlier in the season too. It seems like he has started pitching to contact more, so he avoids those high pitch counts earlier in games.
Johan fine. Bullpen still no good.
Perhaps true, but at least give credit where it’s due. Looked good last night.
I know I probably should be, but I’m really not too worried about the bullpen. From top to bottom for the most part, these guys are good, and I believe that they’ll get it done for the rest of the season. Maybe a blip here and there, but the guys that haven’t performed greatly this year (Heilman, Feliciano, Smith, even Wagner) have proven in the past that they can get guys out, and I don’t think their abilities disappeared overnight. An upgrade would be nice, but it doesn’t look like that’s coming, so we go onto the field with what we’ve got and try to get it done.
Like I said, maybe I should be more concerned, but I’m really not.
Maybe it was me, but he look angry when he was taken out of the game. He looked tense, and like he did not agree with Jerry’s decision. He was moving around a lot in the dugout, more animated than usual.
Did anyone else think he was annoyed or at least mildly perturbed?.
I did notice Johan having a somewhat animated discussion with Sandy Alomar in the dugout while wearing his batting helmet in the bottom of the 7th. Couldn’t lip read what he was saying though.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. Gary Cohen said that Alomar was just discussing strategy at the plate, should Santana come to bat, but Santana looked disagreeable. It doesn’t matter at all, just something I thought I may have perceived. No big deal – if he’s a competitor, and we know he is, he should be annoyed.
“…my generation has become so stats oriented at times, i think some people tend to overlook the artistry of what a guy like johan is capable of doing out on the mound…”
GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! What does one have to do with the other? Is it really a rule that “stats oriented” people don’t appreciate watching baseball and great performances? Why do people continue to say this???
I’d even contend that the stat-heads or whatever love baseball even more, as they’re looking for newer and better ways to evaluate the players that play the game they love.
I know. And then in the next breath he goes on to site two stats.
That’s the thing — statheads don’t focus on stats any more than baseball fans always have. They just find better stats. While Old-School Joe Morgan is talking about a pitchers wins and losses, statheads are digging deeper.
But everyone fears change, and even moreso fears what they don’t understand, and so ignorant people like Cerrone feel they have to take pot-shots to keep their egos full.
All we hear is Santana HAS to go 9 innings every single day instead of giving Johan Santana credit. Seriously, that’s all I ever hear when they mention Santana. That’s what makes Johan and Pedro so great at what they do, they grind out starts and prevents themselves from letting that one big inning implode.
They are smart pitchers and I am glad both are on the team.
the only thing I can criticize Johan on is his strikeouts, he has definitely lost something or is having a hard time getting his slider to move and his change up to fool hitters.
Hopefully it is just a blip on the radar, but guys who are still healthy usually do not have down years for K’s and then bounce back.
Santana’s strikeouts are down because he has lost 2-3 mph on his fastball. He used to consistently throw 94-95 mph with the Twins. The speed difference between his changeup and fastball is less and hitters can adjust to hitting a fastball when it is slower.
That’s just not true, dude. His best years were 2004-6, and his fastball averaged 92.6 mph. This year it’s 91.2.
And you can say that’s a one and a half point drop off, but the truth is, he’s just worrying about location more and spotting it better. He’s throwing the fastball a bit more often, and his other pitches a bit less, using the well-placed fastball to set hitters up. When he wants to, he reaches back and hits 96.