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Mientkiewicz: You haven't seen the real Johan yet

Ken Davidoff

April 30, 2008

Yes, Johan Santana surrendered a homer on his second pitch last night, and yes, he needed help from Pedro Feliciano just to get out of the sixth inning, and yes, this occurred against the sickly Pirates.

The good news, for the Shea Stadium faithful, is that the $137.5-million man was in line to pick up his first win in a Mets home uniform, before Billy Wagner tallied his first blown save of the season. On the same night, no less, when Phil Hughes, the man whom Brian Cashman wouldn't give up for Santana, didn't make it through the fourth inning while pitching across the Triboro Bridge.

The better news is, if history holds up, in time, Santana will make efforts like these seem subpar.

"They haven't seen a really good Johan yet," Doug Mientkiewicz, now with the Pirates, said yesterday, before the Mets and Pirates slogged their way to a 5-4 Mets victory in 11 innings. "Johan's always started slow. Even in Minnesota. He always started very slow. But then as soon as the season started developing, he was lights out.

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"Let's put it this way: When that team needs him the most, he's going to be there. Come August and September, he's going to be dominant."

With last night's performance, allowing that first-inning homer to Nate McLouth and a fourth-inning solo blast to Jason Bay (and no other hits) before departing with the bases loaded in the sixth, Santana now has a career record of 12-9 in March and April, with a 4.02 ERA; his Opening Day victory over the Marlins on March 31 marked his first career March outing. His career May ERA is 4.05, so even though he pitched his home games in the weather-neutralized Metrodome, he still struggled in the early going.

After that, he put up a 2.67 ERA in June, 2.44 in July and 2.80 in September (and 1.29 in one October start). That's including last year's uncharacteristic 4.94 in September. Now that we've seen that Santana is healthy, you can probably write that off, at least partly, to frustration over the Twins' falling out of the pennant race.

In his postgame news conference, Santana evoked memories of Roger Clemens, as he attributed his relative struggles to other forces. He mentioned how the cold weather made the ball slippery; the thermometer read 55 degrees when he threw the game's first pitch. He said that the Mets' scouting report indicated that McLouth would take a few pitches, instead of offering at the second pitch. He explained that home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt didn't give him a few close calls in the fourth before Jason Bay went deep on a full-count fastball.

You could say that this is a sign of a great pitcher, as he never believes he gets beat. Or you could say less nice things.

In any case, Santana said, seeing Wagner give up the lead with one out to go "is part of the game. There's nothing you can do. We won. That's the most important thing. That's not the first time that's happened, and I guarantee it won't be the last."

The boo birds among you made yourselves known once again last night, taking on Aaron Heilman and Carlos "The Snubber" Delgado. But with Santana leading this staff, the Mets are going to win plenty. Far more often than not, they are going to send out a starting pitcher who is superior to his counterpart. That will produce more victories, which should produce, you'd think, more content fans.

When Mientkiewicz, a Met in 2005 and a Yankee in 2007, heard about the Mets' acquisition of Santana, he, like most, believed that the lefthander could work through the immense expectations. If Santana's Shea debut, an April 12 loss to the Brewers in which he surrendered three homers and heard some boos, is as bad as it gets, then it will have been one of the smoother transitions in recent times in this town.

"There'll be a lot of teams that will be kicking themselves for not taking him," Mientkiewicz said.

You can bet Hank Steinbrenner feels that way this morning, even if Santana didn't quite clinch his third Cy Young Award with last night's outing.