The Mets got out of the gate with guns blazing to start the season, but were shooting blanks by the time they got on the first stage coach out of town and heading for Philly. Luckily, we did manage to learn a few things along the way.

Any success that comes out of this season will hinge on our ace Johan Santana. If he can put it together and become a steadying force at the front of the rotation, the Mets will play meaningful games in September. So far the early results are astonishing. 10 innings pitched with a 0.90 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, only 7 hits allowed and 13 strikeouts… Are you kidding me? He’s back people, don’t mess with the Johan.

I pointed this out yesterday on Twitter, but ummm… Mets with David Wright in the lineup 4-0, Mets without David Wright in the lineup 0-2. I’m just saying….

Speaking of captains (calm down, Alex and Bayonne), how about Captain Kirk? There’s some promise here for sure, but once Andres Torres gets back, Nieuwenhuis will need to go back to Buffalo for a little more seasoning. Sure he picked up three hits and looked so-so in centerfield, but what concerns me is the 5 strikeouts in 12 at-bats.  That don’t work for me and is a sure sign he’s a bit underdone. Lets not blow this.

I talked about Jason Bay in length yesterday, but come on… 8 Ks in his first 19 at-bats ? And in his first six games at Citi, where the new shortened walls were catered to right-handed sluggers, nary a home run from Bay? The boo-birds got onto him really good during this homestand, and sad to say it was well deserved. A .158 batting average? Only one RBI through his first six games batting fifth? 17 runners left on base? What did some of you expect applause for the highest paid position player on the team? Let him have it.

Did you take a closer look at Ike Davis’ at-bats yesterday after I gave Bay partial blame for Ike’s healthy dose of offspeed and breaking pitches?

He got a non-stop serving of filthy curves and nasty changeups and they were all strikes and they were all unhittable. In Davis’ first at-bat, when Strasburg dropped in a changeup for a called strike two and then a curveball for called strike three, there was a look of terror on Ike’s face. In his second at-bat he gets a called strike two, and finally swings at a killer curve that fell off the table for strike three. Luck shines down on him in the seventh inning and he hits a changeup in his third at-bat for a clean single to break the schnied. Bay comes up next, sees 5 fast balls and strikes out. I wanted to puke. Finally, Ike sees seven pitches in his last at-bat, none of them fastballs, and grounds out meekly. Get Bay out of the fifth spot.

By the way, nice job by the Mets for rolling back ticket prices to $2.50 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first Mets game in 1962. When the tickets sold out in a matter of a couple of hours, the Mets were gracious enough to offer another batch for the Tuesday game. Now that’s fan friendly… Lot’s of people were able to take their family out for a game and at least for one day they didn’t have to break the bank to do it. Having Roger Craig on hand to toss out the first pitch, was also a classy move.

I totally agree with Petey Pete on bringing up Zach Lutz if Wright were to go on the DL. Valdespin isn’t even playing second base anymore…  Check out his great post on Lutz here.

Have a good one…