Santana taken deep 4 times, but Mets still win it!

It was not one of his best performance by far, but last night Johan Santana gave the Mets a gutsy effort on the hill to some how overtake the Philadelphia Phillies who fought back on Johan after the Mets took an early 3-0 lead. Giving up a season high 4 homeruns, Santana was still able to give the Mets 7 plus innings, a big double that tied the game in the 6th, and snared a liner for a double play in the 7th that killed another Phillie's rally. The ball was flying out last night at CitiField as a total of 7 homeruns were hit between the 2 teams as the ballpark was playing out like the New Yankee Stadium. David Wright got the bomb fest started going deep in the 2nd to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, then it was Carlos Beltran who took AJ Happ deep again in the 3rd to give the Mets a 3-0 lead in what looking like a win for the Mets in the makings with the ACE on the mound who was grooving to this point. But then solo homers from Ryan Howard and then Raul Ibanez in the 4th made the score 3-2. In the 6th it was Jimmy Rollins turn to take Santana deep with a 2 run blast that gave the Phillies the lead for the 1st time in the game, OH NO he didn't, the Phillies now led 4-3. In the bottom of the 6th, Santana came up with 2 on and 1 out looking to bunt the runners over but had failed in his 1st 2 attempts, Santana then trying to get the job done on his 3rd attempt, instead pulled back and took a hack, surprising everyone with a liner down the right field line butcher boy style, for a double that tied the game. With runners now at 2nd and 3rd, and still only 1 out, up came Luis Castillo who would pop up for the 2nd out leaving the runners still on 2nd and 3rd, up next was Alex Cora who then delivered the big hit up the middle to put the Mets ahead for good 5-4. In the 7th, Ryan Church would go deep to straight away center right into the apple to give the Mets an insurance run and a 6-4 lead.

In the 8th, with Santana still on the mound & under 100 pitches, Chase Utley led off the inning by taking Santana deep once again giving up his 4th homerun in the game, as it pulled the Philies within a run 6-5. In came Jerry Manuel to take the ball away from Santana but a reluctant Santana told Manuel I AM A MAN! trying to convince the manager to let him stay in the game. It would not work on Manuel as Santana walked off the mound to the cheers that awaited him from the fans that had approved his performance despite the 4 bombs allowed. Pedro Feliciano came in to relieve Bobby Parnell who came in for Santana but only faced one batter after giving up a hit, so with a runner at 1st and no outs, Feliciano came in to face the Howard and Ibanez. Feliciano got a double play grounder off the bat of Ryan Howard, then dispatched Raul Ibanez for the 3rd out in what was the turning point of the game. In the 9th in came Francisco Rodriguez who was quickly greeted by a leadoff single by Jimmy Rollins, but then K-ROD struck out Pedro Feliz for the 1st out, got pitch hitter Matt Stairs to line out for the 2nd out, and then took care of pitch hitter Greg Dobbs who took a called strike 3 to end the game as the Mets win it!

It was a fun game of ups and downs as the Mets strike 1st and have now beaten the defending champs 4 out 5 times this season. Tonight the Phils send out their ace Cole Hamels vs Mike Pelphey, both whom are 4-2, as the Mets take on Hamels for the 1st time this season after labeling the Mets chokers in the offseason.