Streak ends as Mets let Santana down again!

He did not have his best stuff, but last night Johan Santana kept the Mets in the game with a chance to stretch their winning streak to 8 games, but once again it would be the Mets coming up short. This has become the norm every time the lefty takes the mound for the Mets, as scoring runs for the Met ACE has become something of a mental issue. So once again it was the same old song as the Mets could not muster much of an offense, mixed in with some poor defense and the decision by manager Jerry Manuel to take his ACE out of the game that proved to do the Mets in as they would go on to lose the game to the Braves 8-3.
With one out in the 7th, Santana would give up a hit to Kelly Johnson as his pitch total had now reach a total of 108 pitches, this was when manager Jerry Manuel would then proceed to take Santana out of the game and replaced him with Bobby Parnel who would then give up a hit to Yunell Escobar, to make it 2nd & 3rd with 1 out, Parnell
would then get Martin Prado to fly out for the 2nd out, as Manuel would then bring in Pedro Feliciano to face Brain McCann who would get on safely on a Jose Reyes error to load up the bases. With Brian Stroke ready in the bullpen, Manuell would let the lefty Feliciano face the right handed hitter Matt Diaz who would rip a single to left to bring in 2 runs, that was followed by another 2 run single by Casey Kotchman to give the Braves a 5-1 lead. It was all she wrote as the Mets would go on to lose this one and the streak 8-3. How many times have we seen a pitcher be taken out of a game after he had reach a total amount of pitches only to have the next guy come in and screw it all up? This is what happened last night to Santana who now falls to 4-2 as he lowered his league leading ERA to 0.78. The message here is that whenever you have the best pitcher in baseball in a minor jam, what you do is let your ACE get out of it himself until a run is scored on him. Back in the days every team had a horse or two who would eat up innings, and Santana is a guy that should be given the choice to tell him manager if he is done or not. I don't know if Santana told Manuel that he was done or if that Manuel just simply took him out without even asking Santana if he still had anything left in the tank, but I sure like to know.