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.