Santana leaves Mets' win early with strained pectoral muscle

ATLANTA - Something is wrong with Johan Santana. That much is certain. But exactly what caused him to be removed from last night's game after five innings, and 65 pitches, might take more time to determine.

The Mets' official explanation is a strained pectoral muscle, and the team's prognosis was to list Santana as the usual "day-to-day." But in talking about the injury after a 4-2 win over the Braves at Turner Field, Santana described "tightness" as he pointed to the area of his left shoulder.

Pitching coach Dan Warthen also mentioned Santana's shoulder. Manager Jerry Manuel, during the postgame news conference, first grabbed his own left arm before asking a team spokesman for the official diagnosis.

"He felt that his shoulder wasn't right," Warthen said. "I don't have anything more than that on it. Our doctors are going to make that assessment. It wasn't right so we didn't take any chances."

Santana first experienced the tightness during his warmup pitches for the fifth, and it got progressively worse as the inning wore on. He struck out Omar Infante to end the fifth, but when he came off the field, the two-time Cy Young winner headed straight for the clubhouse with Warthen in tow.

Once in the clubhouse, Santana had trainer Ray Ramirez stretch the area, and later said he planned to return.

"I was able to finish that inning, and I felt that I was able to come back out," Santana said. "But they just didn't want to take any chances. That's what I was told, and I was fine with it."

Warthen, however, noticed a few red flags during the fifth. "In that inning, you saw that the velocity dropped pretty sizably," he said. "With the elbow surgery last year, you're not going to take any chances with Johan."

Santana is coming off back-to-back surgeries in consecutive years. He was able to finish the 2008 season, but it later was revealed that he had pitched the whole month of September with a torn meniscus in his right knee that required surgery to fix.

Last year, his season ended Aug. 20. He later had bone chips removed from his left elbow.

There were no immediate plans to send Santana back to New York for tests. But his next start, which would be Tuesday in Washington, is in doubt.

Warthen said the doctors would know more in the next 24 to 48 hours. Santana talked as if he expects to return at some point. "I definitely want to end the season pitching," he said. "But at the same time, we're going to keep an eye on it and make sure everything is fine. As for right now, I feel fine, so we'll see how it feels [today].''

Santana (11-9) snapped a personal three-game losing streak in helping the Mets avoid getting swept in the four-game series. Before his exit, he had retired 11 of 14, and his only big mistake was a leadoff homer to Brian McCann in the second. He allowed three hits and a run in his shortest outing since he went 32/3 innings May 2 in an 11-5 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Santana had been piling up the innings lately. He had pitched at least seven innings in six straight starts since July 28, including three complete games during that stretch.

After Santana's departure, the Mets turned to four relievers, with only Bobby Parnell giving up a run on Martin Prado's infield single in the eighth. Hisanori Takahashi earned his third save in three chances.