Johan is on

Originally posted by Mark Leff on Apr 18th, 2008 at 9:51 PM.

If Johan Santana needed a defining night to announce his arrival in New York, tonight’s game between the Mets and the Phillies was it. As good as Santana is, he has a weakness – the home run. After giving up more round trippers than any pitcher in the American League last year, Santana became the subject of some worry as he was scheduled to throw his first ever pitches at Citizens Bank Park, a bandbox for which there is no rival in the AL Central, not to mention against a lineup that scored more runs than any team but the Yankees last year. Tonight was a key for Johan setting a tone. He could either show the Phillies that the short walls in Philadelphia were no worries for him, or the Phillies could make him sweat.

It was all Santana tonight in a clash of two of baseball’s premier lefties, Santana and Cole Hamels. Santana pitched 7+ innings, giving up 4 hits and no walks and allowing 3 earned runs, 2 of those runs being allowed to score as inherited runners by Aaron Heilman. He struck out 10, his 40th career game with double digits in strikeouts.

Suffice it to say, in spite of a few tough starts so far in 2008, Johan Santana has made his presence known in the NL East.

The Mets offense performed in Philadelphia as well. Although many of the Mets had, in the past, struggled against Cole Hamels, the Mets as a whole had been batting well against lefties – .305 batting average against lefties this season. And riding that hot streak, they put up 6 runs against the Phils, 5 of them against Hamels. David Wright went 4 for 4 with a run and 2 RBI, Schneider was 3 for 4 and Ryan Church – yeah, he can’t hit lefties, right? – 2 for 4 with 3 runs.

The Mets in 2007 were an especially streaky team, their most notable streak coming at the end of the season when they missed a playoff spot that was just waiting for them. If you believe the Mets will be streaky again, now is the time to get some Mets on your team. The boys in blue and orange have scored 46 runs in their last 9 games.