Johan Santana insisted he was nervous before the Mets season opener. He didn’t look like it at all. Johan came to shine in his first game as a Met and pitched seven great innings in the Mets win over the Florida Marlins with a score of 7-2, striking out eight and only giving up three hits and two earned runs. Besides the dominant play of their star pitcher, the Mets did the job hitting the ball too by getting ten hits and seven runs and only striking out three times. This was a great game played by the Mets and a big win to start the season.
The Mets hitting was very successful. The big three- Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran- did their part as they each got two hits. Reyes was 2-4 with one rbi and one run scored, but surprisingly was caught stealing in his first attempt this season and only attempt in the game. Wright was 2-4 with two doubles and one walk. His biggest play of the night was his double in fourth, when the bases were loaded sending home all three, which made the score 5-0 at that point. Beltran was 2-5 and his two hits were doubles as well, while only scoring one run. Newcomers Angel Pagan and Ryan Church each had one hit, one rbi, and one run. Very good numbers for a six and seven hitter. One of Pagan’s hits was a double and also had a walk. Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider each were hitless, although Delgado got walked once, while Luis Castillo, the number two hitter in the rotation, was 1-3 with two walks, one run, and one stolen base. Santana didn’t have a great hitting performance going 0-3 with one strikeout leaving two on base, but no one is holding it against him because, one- he’s a pitcher and two- he made up for it by his wonderful pitching performance.
Besides Santana’s strong performance, the bullpen did their job only giving up two hits (all by reliever Matt Wise) and zero earned runs. After Santana’s seven innings, the eighth inning was split by Wise, Scott Schoeneweis, and Jorge Sosa who all did very well. The game was secured in the ninth inning when Aaron Heilman closed it out with two strikeouts. The pitching crew in this game was wonderful only giving up five hits and two earned runs.
This was a great way for the Mets to start their season, Santana was dominant and the players did a great job on the offensive end. All together it was a good victory over a young team and a great showing by the new look Mets. They played the Marlins again yesterday, which will be the next post.
