Just under a month ago, Johan Santana took the hill at AT&T Park in San Francisco and what was supposed to be an easy outing against a weak Giants’ lineup, turned out to be one of his worst starts of the season.
While he did earn his fifth victory that day in San Fran to get to 5-2 on the year, Santana was hammered for 11 hits and six runs (only four were earned) in the Mets’ 9-6 win. Since then, Mets fans have mostly been wondering, “What’s wrong with Johan?”
Santana’s numbers in his last three starts are staggering. He’s given up 24 hits, 17 earned runs, has struck out just eight and his ERA is 9.56. Granted, most of those bad numbers can be attributed to his outing yesterday at Yankees Stadium when the Bronx Bombers tuned him up for nine hits and nine runs in just three innings of work. The Yankees eventually won, 15-0.
So is this just a slump for Santana or is trouble brewing on the horizon?
Against the Yankees, Santana missed spots badly and his velocity appeared to be way down. Pitchers go through rough patches throughout the season, but Johan rarely struggles like the way he did on Sunday.
There’s a good possibility that Santana is hurt. His elbow bothered him in spring training and he admitted that his back was acting up about a month ago. Even though he says that he’s healthy, maybe he’s suffering some lingering effects from nagging injuries and he just doesn’t have his stuff right now.
Chances are Santana will turn things around soon. Don’t forget that he has often struggled in the month of April throughout his career but this year he was filthy, posting a 3-1 record with a 1.10 ERA and 44 strikeouts. Maybe he’s just suffering his April woes in June this year.
Either way, if he does bounce back, it’s good for the Mets that he’s working out the kinks in June rather than late July or August. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares over his next couple of starts because while Met fans aren’t pushing the panic button yet, their hands are certainly hovering over it.
