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Can the ace go a little longer?

Johnette Howard

July 23, 2008

Johan Santana gets a fist bump from Ramon Castro

The Mets removed Johan Santana, right, from Tuesday night's game after eight strong innings and 105 pitches. Johnette Howard wonders why couldn't they have pushed him out there for one more inning. (Newsday / Kathy Kmonicek / July 22, 2008)

Johan Santana pitched fine. That wasn't the problem. The rub was yet another game that left you somehow wanting more. The problem was with his closer, Billy Wagner, out of the game with shoulder spasms, with the surging Mets playing arch nemesis Philadelphia for first place in the NL East, with his pitch count at a reasonable 105 pitches after eight innings, why didn't Santana bark "Over my dead body" when the Mets told him he wasn't going out for the ninth? Why didn't he growl and dare them to pry the ball out of his cold, clammy hands?

Asked if Santana fought to pitch the last inning of their crash-and-burn 8-6 loss to the Phillies last night, Mets manager Jerry Manuel said: "No. He was comfortable, very comfortable with the decision."

Santana's apologists will say it's second-guessing now. But it's not. It makes you wonder if baseball really has changed so much the Mets would rather have Duaner Sanchez or Joe Smith or Pedro Feliciano on the mound instead of Santana, their $137.5-million ace, in a game that had "feel-good" written all over it. Or at least it did until those three relievers conspired to cough up six runs in the top of the ninth to blow the rare three-run lead Santana had when he left the game.

It's not all wrong to say that Santana is a hard-luck, can't-buy-a-break pitcher who often gets no run support. Last night, he could've trotted out another well-worn excuse: abandonment by the Mets' bullpen for the fourth time this year.

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But the manner of Santana's exit was also something that has happened with him too many times this season. Last night was teed up as a statement game for him and he could've made a huge statement by saying the ninth was his. But the way the Mets have religiously yanked him from the game so often after six or seven innings and 90-something pitches long ago felt puzzling, like he's on a Pedro Martinez-type pitch count, or the Mets are spooked by all those whispers that Santana has lost some velocity.

And sure enough, it was stunning, absolutely stunning when Manuel admitted after the game - in a first for anyone in the Mets organization - that the Mets indeed consider 100 pitches to be Santana's limit. Manuel said that's the number Santana was used to in Minnesota, and that's a limit the Mets aren't willing to push him much past here.

So there you have it, Mets fans. Think about that for a minute: For $137.5 million, your team bought a 29-year-old ace for five more years after this who is a six- or seven-inning guy most nights.

Santana denied he has any 100-pitch limit. But he didn't dispute that he didn't fight to stay in for the ninth.

"I don't judge," he said. "I don't go against any decision the manager makes. There's nothing I can do about it."

That's a joke, right?

Manuel said that if Wagner told him he could pitch last night, even though the Mets' medical people suggested the closer be given another day off, Manuel probably would've listened to Wagner.

Instead, the Phillies, who came limping into town off a verbal spanking by their manager Charlie Manuel, shifted the psychic balance in this rivalry back their way a bit with another of their rallies.

Phillies closer Brad Lidge, who wasn't with the team a year ago when they overtook the collapsing Mets, said before last night's game that when he first joined Philly this season, he could sense the Phillies felt a "mental edge" over the Mets. But as the season has progressed? Not so much, Lidge admitted.

"We still believe we can beat them," Lidge said. "But the Mets probably believe that they can beat us more than they did before."

The Mets still lead the season series 7-4. Tonight might tell how much this rivalry has tilted back Philly's way, if at all. But last night, at the very least, the Mets opened the door and allowed the Phillies to heal a bit at their expense.

And Santana? Instead of looking as if he delivered an eight-hit, four-strikeout night that wasn't electric but was plenty good enough, his team went home losers again. He is 8-7. But that's not the number that will gnaw at anyone from here on out.

It's that 100-pitch limit blinking by his name.