Aug
17
2012

Santana Surrenders Two Huge Blasts In 6-4 Loss To Nats

An article by Former Writers

Michael Morse connects for a grand slam against the Mets’ Johan Santana.

Mets just can’t keep any sort of winning streak going. Santana gets hit with two homeruns as Kelly Shoppach hits one of his own as Mets lose 6-4 to first place Nats.

Johan Santana is still plundering. Santana did go perfect through the first three innings with nine up and nine down. However, the fourth inning was anything but perfect. After allowing three straight hits without recording an out, Michael Morse took Johan deep for a grand slam. He was trying to pitch Morse in, but it stayed out and he paid for it.

The fifth inning was no better, as Bryce Harper hit a two-run jack off Santana. After the fifth, that would be all for Johan. Two homeruns cause him to have six runs tagged on him in five innings pitched with seven hits, four strikeouts and no walks. There still must be something wrong with Johan. He missed all of last year, and just recently came off the DL with another injury. The Mets will never say it, but he must still be injured and it is really affecting his performance. Johan has dropped to 6-9 on the season, only the second time in his career that he has gone three games under .500. His ERA is now 4.85.

Manny Acosta pitched a scoreless two innings in relief, allowing one hit, and walking two batters. Ramon Ramirez pitched a hitless eighth inning with one strikeout.

Mets jumped on the board early with two in the first. After David Wright singled, and Scott Hairston came up with a double with two outs, Daniel Murphy knocked in Wright and Hariston scored right after him on a throwing error from Bryce Harper. Mets third run came in the sixth with a ground out RBI for Ronny Cedeno, and the fourth run came with a solo shot from the newest Met, Kelly Shoppach, in the seventh. Welcome to the team, bud!

Scott Hairston had three doubles tonight, which ties a club record. The last to do so, was Lucas Duda last year.

Mets are still welcoming in their new catcher, Kelly Shoppach, as he goes 1-for-4 tonight with a solo homer, and two strikeouts.

David Wright had two hits tonight and is hitting .322 on the season, while Jason Bay went 0-for-3 and is hitting .155.

Game Ball

Scott Hairston once more for his three doubles tonight.

Notes

A couple of days ago, the umpires had R.A. Dickey remove his bracelets. Today, Davey Johnson complained to the umpire about Johan’s Gold Glove emblem on his glove, so he had to pitch the rest of the game with duct tape over it. Umpires these days….

Up Next

Mets play the middle game of this three game series in D.C against the Nationals. Jon Niese (9-7, 3.67) goes head-to-head with Edwin Jackson (7-7, 3.74). First pitch set for 7:05 PM on WPIX and MLB Network. Let’s Go Mets!

About the Author: Former Writers

4 Comments + Add Comment

Mr North Jersey August 17, 2012 at 11:07 pm

Reports about discussions regarding shutting Santana down on the horizon according to Rubin. His time off doesn’t seem to have helped as far as the quality of his starts having given up 8 and 6 runs in his last 2 starts since coming off dl.

Santana including tonight now has a 15.63/ERA over his last 5 starts. The Mets not surprising are 0-5 in those games.
Even Flow August 17, 2012 at 11:25 pm

He’s given up over 5 runs the last 5 starts and has an ERA near 5. Stick a fork in Santana for the season and shut him down now. It’s just getting uglier to watch.
Markcomic1 August 18, 2012 at 12:25 am

Shutting Johan down after only 112 innings wow.. Make him a middle reliever or left hand specialist.. If thats all he can give.. What can we do… Would also like to mention Jason Bay..Um He should do everyone a favor and retire. I’ve seen better bat speed at a senior citizens softball game. He is done!
86mets August 18, 2012 at 8:37 am

The Mets have botched the handling of Santana since the No Hitter in June. There was no reason to give him two extra days of rest just because he threw 134 pitches. It obviously upset his between starts routine and upset his rhythm. We all saw the results afterward. Then came the start vs. the Cubs when Reed Johnson stepped on his ankle and injured it. They continued to allow him to pitch THAT game AND 2 more (stinkers) after that before they came to the conclusion that Santana was injured. If asked, they (Collins / Warthen / Alderson) would say that when asked that Johan always said he was ready to go. Wrong answer guys. Just because a guy makes $25 million does not mean he gets to dictate when he’s able to play through pain.

I suspect another major reason why they didn’t DL him after the Cubs game was that, desperate to keep folks coming to their games, they allowed their No Hit hero to keep going out there. After all, no Santana, no fannies in the seats. That thinking probably also led to allowing him only one, 3 inning, rehab start vs. short season minor league hitters. He should have made at least 2 more starts, progressively allowing him to throw more pitches and go deeper into games to build up his arm strength and endurance. But, again desperate to fill seats, they rushed him back too soon, and we’ve again witnessed two more consecutive terrible outings resulting in talk of shutting him down for the rest of the season. What they SHOULD have done was handled him properly to start with and forget about filling seats and we likely wouldn’t be having this idiotic thinking about shutting him down now. I don’t think he needs to be shut down, he just wasn’t allowed proper time to rehab and rebuild his arm strength and endurance. What are these people thinking?

MMO Mets Chat

Need Tickets To The Mets Game?

Check Out These Great MLB Links!

For wholesale prices on New York Mets gifts and equipment, check these stores out!
Mets Autograph Signings
Mets Fan Apparel
Mets Autographed Baseballs
Baseball Card Supplies
Baseball Equipment

For the best seats and lowest MLB ticket prices, go to PurchaseSeats.com. Get your Mets Tickets now and follow them on the road with Yankees Tickets, Phillies Tickets, Nationals Tickets and Braves Tickets!