On the day of the season where the Mets needed it most of all, Johan Santana provided to his team and to the fan base as he won the rubber game against the Rockies by pitching a complete game shutout. You probably know by now that the most pressing issue in the Mets world today was the altercation that happened between K-rod and his father-in-law last night either in or near the Family Room at Citi Field. This is a difficult situation for a team to rally behind because now there is a sudden, ugly merge between the private life of one player and the private lives of all the other players. That being said, today was the day the Mets needed something to cheer about.
Cue Johan Santana.
From the beginning of the game Santana was fantastic as he struck out the side notching his first three of what would be 10 strikeouts on the day. What made Santana so effective today was a combination of his arm slots looking identical (generally the key to any of his succesful days), the 10+ mph difference in his pitches, and that he was hitting the spots so well that Thole looked extremely relaxed the entire game. He had great control, he really didn't get into any difficult situations and this all meant a game that barely went above 2 hours (maybe like 2 hours 15 minutes or something).
The Mets bats weren't explosive today, but they were better than most. The four runs were scored on two RBI singles and two RBI sacrifice flys with 2 runs coming in the bottom of the first and the other two coming in the bottom of the 7th. In that 7th inning the Mets pulled off one of my favorite moves in baseball where Santana shows bunts, the pitcher throws (directly down the middle of the plate) and Santana pulls that bat back and slaps in a base hit.
The shutout today was the 17th one for the Mets this season. Lets keep them coming!
