26
2012
Super Santana Shutouts The Friars In An Unholy 9-0 Blanking
An article by 
Nothing like a 4-hit shutout against a team you were supposed to beat, huh?
Summary
This felt good, did it not? Johan started today and guaranteed us at least a split of this four game series with the Padres.
Santana went out there this afternoon and decided to turn the clock back a few years to a more dominant time. The man was working like he was double parked out there too – only 96 pitches over a game that barely ran over 2 hours led to a dominant 4-hit shutout. He struck out seven on the day and walked none. The Padres had only one AB with a runner in scoring position all afternoon – and he finished the game a mere three above the minimum. Santana K’d all three times at the plate today though, so I guess you can say he was responsible for a 10-K start.
The offense was vicious today, plain and simple. They struck early for 4 runs in the first – a three run jack by our resident bench power source Scott Hairston, and a solo shot by Vinny Rottino shortly after put it together. And although the Hairston long ball would be all Santana needed, they decided to put together five more runs for him in the bottom of the eighth.
An pinch-hit RBI 2B by Ike Davis drove in the first run of the inning and then Mike Nickeas hit a grand slam. Nothing special, he hits them all the time, right? (Good job there, Mikey.) The damage was done against ex-Met Dale Thayer in the 8th (who was closing in SD for a while) and the opposing starter, Clayton Richard, who allowed only the 4 runs in the first over six. 9 runs off 9 hits overall.
If you want, you can pretend there is another generic line here about how amazing Santana was.
Hero Of The Game
Not so surprisingly, Super Santana was santastic under the strong sun in Saturday’s Shutout. (Go ahead, say that three times fast.)
Notes
Down to a 2.75 E.R.A. for Santana on the year as he improves to 2-2.
4-7 with RISP today.
Wright went 0-fer, and dropped his average to .390.
Nice to Ike continuing the good vibes.
12 – 0 when our starter goes 7 IP+, is it?
Hat tip to the bench players coming through today, man. Nickeas with the GS (1), Rottino with the solo shot (1) and Hairston with the three-run jack (4). I might be mistaken, but I think that was career homer number 1 for Rottino, so congrats! Thanks to Dave [Retire 31], who linked a GIF of the Nickeas granny here.
A few more random notes about how great Johan was today: He never reached a three-ball count, retired sixteen straight between the second to seventh innings, and five out of the nine innings required only nine pitches. That is definitely how you open up Memorial Weekend.
On Deck
We finish up the four-game series with the Padres with RA Dickey – who is 6-1 with a 3.45 ERA. Dickey has always rocked for us, but it is great to see him finally getting the wins he has earned. His last three starts: 19 IP, 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA and 19 Ks. Nice. He will be opposed by the once dominant Edinson Volquez in a 1:10 start.
About the Author: Satish Ram
I am a Senior Writer and Editor here at MetsMerized - where I specialize in Minor League coverage. I have been on the staff since 2007 and I am currently in my third semester of college in New York City. You can find me at www.facebook.com/SatishRam or @SilverHeatMMO. Feel free to message me - I love talking about the Mets or baseball overall with anybody.
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Lets hope they have a hard time adjusting to the Knuckler after all the heat Santana was throwing today!
Johan pitched a gem today.
Between his pitching performance and the power breakout with the 3 HRs (Nickeas-Holy GS), this one was fun to watch.
Start dreaming of which top prospects other teams are going to throw at us baby! We are officially going to get a boatload for him come trade deadline time! Santana derserves a shot to go to the post season anyway, so everybody wins! Great game by Johan!
Congratulations. You have officially posted the dumbest comment in Internet history.
Santana is magic again.
Santana has gone way beyond my expectations. Over the years I’ve learned most players don’t come back from devastating injuries, so I temper my optimism. Santana is the exception to the rule. Santana rocks!!!
Maybe Dickey can continue the streak on Sunday. Here’s hoping!!!
You know Des I’m starting to wonder….
This type injury has only been treated and surgically repaired on three pitchers…(That I know of…I should preface here)
Wang (he was first)
Santana and Young
Wang struggled coming back from it but I have to wonder if that really has to do with the injury/surgery or more to do with Wang himself…
Cause I have seen nothing about Santana except maybe a loss of 2 or 3 MPH to say it has affected him at all.
Young I guess will break the tie here soon enough.
Isn’t this injury what ended Prior’s Career and what happened to John Maine too?
Maine had elbow issues if I’m not mistaken…not sure what Prior’s problem was…
Metsie – Prior’s has had major shoulder injuries since August, 2006. I think he uses some of the same inverted W arm action that concerns some analysts of Zach Wheeler. Prior now has a minor league contract with the Red Sox.
Thanks Des,
I know shoulders are so complex and any injury to one part leads to damage to other parts because of the interelation of all those parts. Doctors still don’t have a complete picture on how the Shoulder works and what all the parts do…
And I know it’s a bitch to operate on.
I didn’t know Wheeler had some mechanical issues. Hope that doesn’t become a problem with durability.
Maine had shoulder issues. Starting with bone chips in 08 and spiraled out of control ever since to where some believe he had a capsule tear when he tried to hang on with Colorado.
Maine just signed with the Yanks, actually.
Maine had arthroscopic surgery to remove scar tissue, similar to the one Santana had in 09′ to remove bone chips.
If I remember correctly, Maine had the tissue removed from around his rotator cuff/shoulder while Santana’s had to do with his elbow. But I don’t think Maine had the type of surgery Santana is coming back from.
The surgery that Santana had, the tear of the capsule, was basically the same one Prior had (and Wang, of course).
All of this is based off my basic memories, so if anyone has more accurate information, please correct me if needed.
Pedro Feliciano had a posterior capsule tear. Johan, Prior and Wang had anterior. Feliciano’s career is probably over because of it.
Metsie — The sample size is so small that I it causes me to wonder about how much we can generalize at this time. Santana is seemingly just the same as he’s been in the past few years, except for the fast ball differential you mentioned.
Attitude and toughness probably play a major role, but I wonder if there is more to this. For example, there are undoubtedly small anatomical differences between the three guys. Also, the injuries may be extremely similar but not be identical. The surgeon’s technique(s) may not have varied a bit
I hope Young comes back strong too. Yet his pitching style, with his contorted delivery, may not allow him the same success. But if my wishes, and I’m certain yours, play out he too will return to form and help the team.
I noticed you said that there are only three cases you know about. Medical advances attributable to MRI and CAT scans in past few decades now allow very precise diagnoses. So we’re in a new era with better technology and better procedures. Whether there were similar injuries before these advances is something we’ll never know for sure. My money says there probably were. Anyway, here’s to Wang, Santana and Young!!!
P.S.: Wang was reinstated from the disabled list on Tuesday. He gave up one run in three innings of relief to earn the win in his season debut.
Yes it’s a small sample and we also have to understand that he can have a setback of re-injury at any moment. Just because he is good now and the shoulder seems to be holding up doesn’t mean it won’t blow up in August or September after a full season of stress on it…
Your right there is more to it for one the type of Pitcher itself.
We all talk about the difference between a Pitcher and a Thrower. Santana didn’t win that Cy Young he has merely because he was a great physical specimen. He is a Pitcher not a thrower and Pitchers can lose a few MPH and still succeed.
Sure he has a good arm but he also has the Head to go with it!
So all of that plus Medicine advances more from year to year these days than it used to advance in decades have probably all contributed to some of the success.
But like you said we really won’t know anything until he makes it through the season and doesn’t have any setbacks.
Ike swinging early in the count and starting to hit. A coincidence? I don’t think so, i think this idea of a one philosophy for everybody to follow is detrimental. Ike and Duda are not leadoff hitters and should not be told to behave like leadoff hitters.
Now that these guys are starting to swing the bat maybe we’ll see a few more HRs now.
actually, if it means anything, it means that Ike IS starting to follow the team “philosophy”. If the pitcher throws you a pitch in your zone, rip it. Even if it is the first pitch. There is NO edict to Mets hitters to watch pitches go by, or take the first pitch (unless, like any other pitch, it is one they can’t handle).
and Ike actually was swinging at first pitches all the time this year. He just wasn’t coming close to hitting them, since most of them were not close to the zone. So getting a few hits now means his eye/timing are improving, or pitchers decided to throw fat “get ahead” pitches to start the AB. And if that is the case, guess what he won’t be seeing again.
Well all I can say Any is your ASSUMING thats the team philosophy but the truth of the matter is the results we have seen early this year say different.
When you say wait for your pitch and don’t swing until you get your Pitch….
Your basically saying WAIT,DON’T SWING until you get something you like…
Which works provided your not waiting and not swinging when what you like comes!
Plate discipline is not the art of what NOT to swing at it should be taught as the art of knowing WHAT to swing at!
So to say WAIT for your pitch, Don’t Swing till you get what you can hit means an awful lot of strikes are going to go buy you! And it only takes 3 of them with no guarantee that one of them is going to be the pitch you like to hit!
You think they are teaching Discipline but they are really teaching Passive acts (Wait, Don’t Swing UNTIL), When what they should be teaching is situational hitting and count strategy!
What they need to be teaching them is what to DO with 0 Strikes, 1 Strike, 2 Strikes in the count!
Not what NOT TO DO unless it’s a pitch you like to hit!
Watching Johan Santana yesterday stirred up some great memories. I still remember how excited I was the day we traded for him. If anyone was going to comeback from that shoulder surgery and not skip a beat, it was Johan!