Another Johan Santana start is wasted as Mets lose to Phillies

I had no idea Santana had been so unlucky this year.

J.A. Happ—Kyle Kendrick 2.0?

Perhaps Santana should do something really crazy and recalibrate what he needs to do from now on. Knowing that his teammates will score only two runs for him, he must allow no more than one. If only it were that simple. The Mets have, in effect, wasted his last six starts, losing them all since June 6, while he has gone 0-4 and posted a 2.48 earned run average.

Over that 40-inning span, the Mets have scored 11 runs while Santana has been on the mound, and the offense that scored 25 runs the last three nights in St. Louis hardly backed him again. They mustered four hits in nine innings, reaching base once after the fifth, as their Nos. 3-5 hitters — David Wright, Carlos Beltrán and Carlos Delgado — combined to hit 0 for 11 with five strikeouts.

“I mean, for obvious reasons, we need to go out and win these games,” Wright said. “It seems like that’s been a fault of ours all year, these close games, these close one-run games, we just haven’t been able to find a way to come out on top.”

The Mets face a daunting task over their next three games. Unless they win all three, they are assured of leaving here in no better shape than when they arrived. The pitching matchup favored them Friday night, as it usually does when Santana pitches, when the Phillies started a left-hander, J. A. Happ, who had the same number of major league starts as Santana had Cy Young awards (two).

Happ and Chad Durbin sort of split up the start, with Durbin going for 2.1 innings, then leaving after the seventh.  You don’t see “long relief” much anymore, unless the game is a blowout.  Why not?

BTW, the Phillies’ blue hats look terrible with the white jerseys.