New York Mets’ Johan Santana shines in 8-6 win against St.Louis Cardinals - MLB Update
Employing his typical change-up, Johan Santana earned the praise of manager and team-mates after the New York Mets beat St. Louis Cardinals 8-6 on March, 6 at Port St. Lucie, Florida in their Grapefruit League game during Major League Baseball Spring Training.
Going for two scoreless innings and coming to the mound after 18 months is not a small achievement for Santana. Even more terrific is the fact he threw consistently at 87-88 mph, something if he keeps doing regularly can make life difficult for any hitter.
Deceived by Santana’s signature change-up, Cardinals’ Matt Holliday was impressed by the way he was forced to fly the ball out and ended up landing a catch into the fielder’s hand.
“I didn’t know what his velocity would be like having not pitched in a long time,” Holliday said. “(Throwing) 89-90 at the beginning of spring training I would say is pretty good. He looked pretty good. … He knows how to pitch so if he is healthy he is going
to be effective.”
Struggling to make a comeback last year and then being unable to move beyond throwing five innings, he was withdrawn by the Mets. Now as he is back, his presence must have triggered alarm bells to the opponents.
Only player from Cardinals’ camp hitting a single against Santana’s pitching was Mark Hamilton who also contributed a RBI double to the score later.
A swing on the 3-2 four-seam fastball and the hit at which Holliday was caught by centre-fielder Andres Torres was not all that bad as he himself said after the match.
“I tell you what, that would have been a home run in Arizona,” Holliday said.
The most fascinating aspect of the match was when Santana enticed Yadier Molina to swing and failed to catch up on the change-up he threw.
Josh Thole, Mets’ catcher, happy with the way Santana performed said that he seemed to have started from where he left last season. “He went out there and it was kind of like he just left off where he was,” he said.
As Santana is scheduled to play against Miami Marlins on Sunday, keeping the same momentum will be important for him. He can now go to bullpen and see if he can come out with the same performance again.
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