Almost everything went right tonight.
Pitching Performance
Johan Santana: the stopper, the savior, and worth every penny. Eight innings, scattering seven hits, and surrendering two runs. He walked only two, and stuck out 10. 125 pitches later, this was one of Santana's best outings as a Met.
He allowed a RBI double to Kosuke Fukudome in the second inning, and an RBI single to Reed Johnson in the third. That was it.
Goodness gracious, I love that man. What more can I say? His numbers speak for themselves. Well done, Santana. Well done, indeed.
Also, Santana was getting squeezed beyond belief tonight. Both pitchers were, but it seemed to affect Johan the most. There were at least two times that Santana thought he had just thrown strike three, but the umpire saw it differently.
Of course, it wasn't easy, as Pedro Feliciano and Luis Ayala had to combine to finish out the game for the Mets. Feliciano allowed two hits in 1-3 of an inning, and Ayala had to come in and clean up the mess, and earning a save in the process.
Never easy.
Offensive Output
Big hits when it counts.
Sean Marshall held the Mets off the board until the fifth inning, when David Wright punched a bases loaded single to left field, driving in both Nick Evans and Johan Santana.
I didn't think he was going to get a hit, but Wright proved me wrong. Keep proving me wrong.
The Mets had a huge sixth inning. Carlos Delgado placed a bloop double just inside the third base line to start the inning. After moving to third on a Ryan Church single, Castro scored on an error by Chad Gaudin. Daniel Murphy followed that up with a pinch hit single, loading the bases for Jose Reyes.
Reyes came to the plate with 199 hits on the season, after singling in his first at bat of the game. His 200th hit was a big one, a triple down the first base line, clearing the bases and putting the Mets up by four, and for good.
Congrats, Jose.
Huge inning. Could possibly change the season.
The Rest of the Story
Santana went 1-3, scoring two runs to help his own cause.
Reyes: 2-3, 3 RBI.
Wright: 2-4, 2 RBI.
Look who is getting hot!
At time of publishing: Phillies lost, Brewers are losing. Mets are 1.5 back in NL East, TBD (Up at lease 1 game) in WC.
Game Ball: Johan Santana.
