Mets Must Support Santana

Written by: Shaya Tenenbaum on 15th June 2010

Mets Must Support Santana | read this item

The Mets road record could easily be .500 if the bats supplied the runs for Johan Santana, as they did last night in Cleveland.

With a 24-10 record at Citi Field, the Mets possess among the finest home tallies in the big leagues. However, on the road, Jerry Manuel’s club is right there with the bottom-feeders of Major League Baseball at 12-18 – and that includes the current four-game road winning streak.

In Santana’s seven starts away from home, the Mets record is 2-5, including last night’s 7-6 win at Progressive Field.

Santana’s home/road splits defy explanation: 4-2 with a 3.18 ERA at pitcher-friendly Citi, but just 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA on the road. Even that measly 3.09 is inflated by Johan’s one bad start in Philadelphia – ten runs in 3.2 innings pitched.

In his first road start, Santana matched surprising Cardinals hurler Jaime Garcia zero for zero through seven innings in a game that would eventually go 20 frames. The classic pitcher’s duel (read: lack of offense) was the only Santana start the Mets won on the road – prior to last night.

Johan’s next road outing, against the Phillies ageless wonder Jamie Moyer, was his solitary road defeat.

In Miami, Santana was equal to the task against Marlins fireballer Josh Johnson, with both aces allowing a single run over seven innings. Neither starter factored in the decision as the Mets lost in the bottom of the ninth.

At that point, one couldn’t help but wonder if the Mets simply had issues with starters whose first names begin with the letter “J”.

But in Santana’s next three starts away from cavernous Citi Field, New York’s lineup was stymied by Atlanta’s Kris Medlen, Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo and San Diego’s Clayton Richard, respectively, for a combined three runs in the three games. All three terrific Johan starts resulted in Mets defeats.

Last night in Cleveland, the Venezuelan lefty struggled early giving up four runs over seven innings but finally got the run support that had been lacking.

Conventional baseball wisdom says: “A team should play .500 ball on the road and have its record determined by how well it plays at home.”

Yet, the Mets terrific home record has been sabotaged by pitiful road displays, the worst of which was a four-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins in mid-May.

A win in April or May is worth as much as a win in September, but the Mets have squandered several chances to capitalize on well-pitched games in the early part of the season.

If the Mets took care of their ace with ample run support, their road record would go from bad to respectable.

But, even .500 is unacceptable with an ace on the hill, especially with how Santana has performed.

With even a modicum of run support, the Mets road record in Santana starts could easily be flipped to 5-2 – just the three-game swing needed to be even away from home.

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Topics: Bottom Feeders, First Names, Gallardo, Game Road, Hurler, Jaime Garcia, jamie moyer, Johan Santana, Josh Johnson, Lefty, Major League Baseball, Mets, Posses, Progressive Field, Single Run, Solitary Road, Tallies, Three Games, Venezuelan, Winning Streak, Yovani Gallardo

Mike says:

June 17, 2010 at 6:18 pm

Excellent article, people like to get on Santana for the times he doesn’t go at least 7 and when they just look at overall record as opposed to actual performance. This man could very easily have another 8-10 wins over the past 3 seasons as a Met.