The Game

We have all read articles saying how the 2008 New York Mets are different from the 2007 Mets because of Johan Santana. Well, the Mets’ ace proved this to be true in snapping New York’s three game losing streak in Tuesday night’s 6-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The victory kept the Mets one game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card race and cut the NL East deficit to 1.5 games behind the Phillies.

The Mets actually flipped the script in this one. Instead of jumping out early and then completely shutting down as a team, New York actually fell behind early. The Cubs scored single runs in both the second and third innings off the Mets’ lefty and Chicago’s spot starter had retired 11 of the previous 12 Mets heading into the bottom of the fifth. There was a palpable feeling of nauseousness in my living room as well as amongst the 50,000 fans at Shea. But, just as it seemed like hope was lost as the Shea scoreboard showed Milwaukee jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, the Mets fought back. With one out and a runner on second, Johan Santana hit a broken bat bouncer that would have been a double play had the pitcher been able to snag it. Instead, the ball got past the mound and was on its way to the second baseman when it hit the broken barrel of Santana’s bat and scooted away for an infield hit. This was exactly the type of break this struggling team needed as the Mets would go on to load the b ases before David Wright broke an 0 for 11 slump with the bases loaded, delivering a two run single to tie the game. One inning later, the Mets’ good fortune continued as they took a 3-2 lead on a throwing error by Cubs’ pitcher Chad Gaudin. Later in the inning, the flood gates opened as Jose Reyes came through with a bases clearing three run triple to put New York up 6-2.

Back on the mound, Santana had it going on. Johan threw a career high 125 pitches over eight strong innings. He allowed just those two runs on seven hits while striking out ten. Looking back on the season, although he started slowly, Met fans could not have asked for any more out of the team’s huge off-season investment. Santana improved to 15-7 on the year with a 2.64 ERA. Pedro Feliciano and Luis Ayala came on to finish the game in the ninth and, for one night anyway, the insecurity of Met fans everywhere gave way to a huge exhale thanks to Johan’s performance. Things will not be easy over the next few days, however, as the Mets will face the Cubs’ co-aces in Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden. Can Ollie Perez rise to the challenge and hold on to New York’s tenuous hold on a playoff spot? We’ll see. If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go throw up. I can’t take this.

The Haiku

Santana’s pitching,
Reyes hits, black bat magic
Light up Shea’s last week

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal