Santana Provides Insurance

Back when the New York Mets acquired Johan Santana, they knew they were getting an ace. A former two-time Cy Young winner and the owner of the game’s nastiest change-up. Arguably the game’s best pitcher. But there was more impetus behind that trade then the point-blank. When the Mets gave up four prospects and $137 million, they were buying assurance.
Nights like Thursday’s show why sometimes that can be priceless.
The baseball season is a long one, and games in July have a what have you done for me so-far feel. What you did today is just as important as what you did a week ago. But as soon as the calendar turns to September, it’s all about what you have done lately.
And on a September night when the Mets were in a position they never could have imagined themselves to be again. Again fighting for their playoff lives, looking to prove that choke does not even exist in their vocabulary. By now, all signs for the Heimlich maneuver have probably been banished from the clubhouse just so nobody even gets the thought in their head.
That is why going into their game against the Washington Nationals, the Mets were once again under the microscope. After blowing a seven game lead with 17 games remaining last year, they rang up a three-and-a-half game lead with the same amount of season left. This time it only took them six days and five games to blow it. Cynicism is alive and well with Mets fans, who had spent all season telling themselves that this year is different.
It is, because this year they have Santana. He is the assurance that the Mets were missing last year. They got him to guarantee wins in September. He hasn’t disappointed.
In three starts this month Santana has a 2.66 era and averaging a strike-out an inning. A seven inning, one run, 8K game to beat the gNats was just another run of the mill dominant performance for him. The Mets have won eight of his last nine starts and will need to win his remaining two starts to make the playoffs.
Last year, when the team ERA was over six during that infamous stretch, the Mets never knew what they were getting from their pitching. Not even future Hall-of-Famers like Tom Glavine could be counted on.
The Phillies beat them at their own game, with a worse rotation they allowed four runs per game. Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer and even struggling Brett Myers all threw gems and won important games when they needed to. The Mets had to rely on Glavine and a barely back from injury Pedro Martinez to provide balance. That’s how a team that spent 140 days in first place spends October trying to bare Joe Buck like the rest of us.
Santana is that insurance plan that was missing in 2007, that even when the team goes on a run of losses they can rely on him to go out there every fifth day and provide the line he did last night.
It’s great to have an insurance plan, takes all the worries away.

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