MLB: Dominant Johan keeps Mets alive

Rest up for Sunday, Johan. Rest up.

There was a certain risk involved with bringing Johan Santana back on three days’ rest, with using a pitcher who had performed the trick—albeit successfully—just once in his career. Santana had thrown 125 pitches, a career high, in his most recent outing, rendering any normal expectations worthless. Simply put, the Mets were rolling the dice.

Then Santana went out and performed better than the team possibly could have hoped, firing a complete-game shutout and keeping the Mets in playoff contention for at least one more day. Their 2-0 victory over the Marlins boosted the Mets, at least temporarily, back to within a half-game of the Wild Card-leading Brewers, who had only just started their game when the Mets recorded the final out at Shea.

...Following a 35-minute rain delay, Santana came out sharp, retiring 11 of the first 12 batters he faced. His only trouble came in the fifth inning, when he loaded the bases, but he still needed only 104 pitches to complete eight innings. By the time Santana struck out John Baker to end the eighth—his seventh strikeout of the afternoon—Mets fans had been serenading him with chants of “JO-HAN, JO-HAN” for quite some time.