Johan Santana Must Hate the Mets

Johan Santana couldn't have envisioned this when he decided to leave the Minnesota organization after eight stellar seasons to sign the New York Mets. Like most people in baseball, he was banking on the Mets being a power in the National League and with them adding him to the rotation, this was supposed to be his best chance at a World Series ring. Well the Mets are on their way to screwing that up.

Earlier today, Santana tossed another brilliant game for the Metropolitans, leaving in the 8th inning with a 3-2 lead. The bullpen promptly served up a game-tying home run in the ninth, taking the win away once again from Johan. They have done this on a routine basis this year, including two outings ago when the Mets bullpen gave up three runs over the past two innings against the Astros.

Santana currently has a dominating 2.85 ERA through 24 starts in 161 innings. His record to show for that sterling ERA? 9-7. Nine wins. He has tossed 16 quality starts and have lost four of those games. Another six of those starts have ended in a no-decision after the pen decided to blow it. Not to mention two starts where he suffered the loss after allowing only one run through seven plus innings due to lack of run support.

The bottom line is Santana is fifth in the National League in ERA and should have about 16 or 17 wins. If things keep up the way they are going, he's looking at his lowest win total since 2002, when he only made 14 starts and won eight. Obviously he's going to be saying the right things to the media, but this has to be frustrating. Also, this isn't just about him getting wins for his stat line, but the Mets signed him to help get them over their massive collapse from last year. That hasn't been happening, and it's not going to happen if they continue to waste starts from their best pitcher. The Mets are only two games behind Philadelphia for the division, but unless they find a way to take advantage of Santana's starts, the Mets are going to miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year.