20
2012
Oh-No-Han! Santana Shelled, But Despite Late Rally Mets Fall 7-6 To Dodgers
An article by Former Writers
After the Mets narrowly avoided being swept by the Nationals,they open up the Dodgers series with another loss as Santana delivered another lackluster performance. Murphy and Valdespin were great, but the rest of the guys could not capitalize so Mets lose tonight 7-6.
Johan Santana does not like pitching in the second half so far. Another rough start as he allowed six earned runs on seven hits, two homers, two walks, while striking out three in only three innings pitched. If you are not worried about Johan by now, you should be. He is having a rough July. in three starts this month he hasn’t pitched pass the fifth inning, and has allowed a whopping six runs in each of those three starts. He has allowed a total of six home runs in that span, that’s more than he allowed in his five starts in June. He has had a winless June, and his ERA…well let’s just say it’s through the roof. Santana losses his seventh game of the season and now has a 3.98 ERA.
Pedro Beato pitched two hitless innings, while striking out one. Ramon Ramirez also picked up two innings as he allowed one run on two hits, one walk, and struck out three. That one run was really the difference maker. Tim Byrdak and Jon Rauch combined for two scoreless innings and three stikeouts.
How in the world is Jordany Valdespin not starting everyday? If there was such a thing, he would win the MVPH (Most Valuable Pinch-Hitter) award. He has done it again with another pinch-hit, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that got the Mets within one run of tying the game. In the ninth, he stayed in as the left-fielder, and got a base hit and made it to second on a throwing error. The old saying of “Money Plays” is in force here as Bay continues to start over Valdespin in left field.
Daniel Murphy had an impressive night with four hits, including a double, an RBI and a run. Almost back up to what he was hitting early in the season as he is at a .297 batting average.
David Wright and Josh Thole both went 0-for-3 with a walk each, and three strikeouts combined. Wright is hitting .350, while Thole is hitting .270.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ronny Cedeno, and Justin Turner all had one at-bat and all struck out.
Game Ball
Would have been Valdespin if the Mets capitalized on his big hit, however, Murphy’s four-hit night was impressive and gets the game ball.
Notes
Jordany Valdespin is still the man right now.
Ike Davis had one hit tonight. He has 61 hits for the season with 53 RBIs, hitting .207.
Up Next
Matt Harvey Miguel Batista will start Saturday for the day against the Dodgers and former Met, Chris Capuano. Game time is 1:10 PM on WPIX. Let’s Go Mets! Stop losing!
About the Author: Former Writers
11 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 18 | .591 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 22 | .511 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 24 | .467 | 5.5 |
| Mets | 17 | 25 | .405 | 8.0 |
| Marlins | 13 | 32 | .289 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/21/2013
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Watch Batista tomorrow throw six scoreless!
Or get bombed
Entirely possible
Santana over his last 3 starts now has given up 19 earned runs over 12 2/3 innings for a 13.50/ERA.
Mets are simply not going to win many games with those kind of numbers. Heard Collins talk about they were going to see what they could do to help Santana.
Hat tip to Spin and his run of PH HR’s, Murphy with a 4-hit night and the pen for a nice 6 inning 1 run effort.
Mets once again are a loss away from falling to .500 with Batista on the hill 2morrow.
Need a win.
LGM!
I agree.
Correction Murphy had two Doubles, not one as stated above.
The June 1 no-hitter cost us dearly. Johan is a lost soul.
We can’t blame the bullpen tonight. They did their job holding the Dodgers to one run after the third.
But there were two instances when I felt we were just going to come back short.
1) When David’s deep fly in the first missed came up just a few feet short of being a home run and tying the game.
2) When L.A. scored that seventh run – felt that was going to be the difference.
Valdy is a pinch hitting wonder but we must realize that if he begins to play everyday he is obviously not going to continue at this home run pace but that when pitchers get to know him better he might wind up slumping like we going on with Kirk.
Also, can’t say that the no-hitter was a dark cloud in what seemed at the time to be a silver lining because I personally cannot believe the extra thirty somewhat pitches and the effort put into them to secure the no-hit bid could cause any such lingering strain. If it’s a matter of physical fatigue from being out so long (like with Young), then that fatigue would have settled in even if Johann just went six or seven innings that night giving up three or four runs in the process.
Knowing our luck, I can just see our bullpen suddenly turning around and catching fire as our starters now begin blowing games in the early innings instead.
I agree with you that I don’t think that the extra 20 or so pitches during the no hitter is the cause of Johans struggles. That was a month and a half ago and his velocity is still the same. He’s not locating his fastball and hanging his slider. Not much you can do when you can’t locate a 88-90 MPH fastball. Thats batting practice to these guys.
Hi Fonzie,
So from your observations it isn’t fatigue or something else physically since it hasn’t effected Johann’s velocity and so, I guess, it means he is in pro-longed pitching slump. Notice anything in his mechanics that might be causing his location problems? Know it’s hard to decipher on television for even with a 72 inch HD set, one can’t see things like how he’s gripping the ball.
Just like those extra pitches did no harm to him physically, I doubt his prolonged rest after the no-hitter messed up his rythm so much as to still be affecting him at this stage. It’s not even a matter of age since it’s not affecting his velocity, as you noted.
As a Met fan I am not concerned about Santana. All the great pitchers go through “tough” spells where a bad break here and there , a blown call, a fluke hit seems to turn good pitchers into bad luck. It happens and he’ll come out of this fine. He’s healthy and will get throuigh this dry spell especially with a veteran pitcher like Santana.