Yeah, I counted Johan Santana out.
He hadn’t had his usual stuff all year in his first 16 starts, and I didn’t care what his numbers said. We could all see it, and all the metrics told us he had gotten incredibly lucky. He also was said to have been tipping his pitches at two different points in the year.
But then he showed up in Washington and twirled a 7-inning, 7-strikeout performance that brought me back to him. For the first time, he was at 91 MPH consistently, had hitters fooled with his changeup, and seemed to be throwing downhill as I remembered.
And he did it again tonight. A masterful, 113-pitch, 3-hit, complete-game shutout, and he struck out 5 and walked 3. Not to mention, an unbelievable 12-pitch at-bat in the third in which he plunked his first career homer off the right-field foul pole.
Not as many strikeouts as you like, but with 7 last start, and with hitters as off as they were tonight, I was further encouraged.
I love this Johan Santana. So fun to watch.
We’re crazy as Mets fans…yup, I counted him out. As a wise man once said…
“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in!”
-Michael Corleone
