YO-YO JOHAN
After 3 perfect, thoughts of ending ’12
WASHINGTON — That night of that no-hitter, in a frozen moment at the center of the jumping and screaming, one teammate did ask Johan Santana the real question: What if those 134 pitches hurt your arm?
As the friend remembered it, Santana looked directly at him and said, “It would still be worth it.”
He was right. What other moment could transcend that one, during this flawed marriage between erstwhile ace and team — a union that grew more troubled during Friday night’s pounding in Washington, a 6-4 loss?
Santana, whose tenure in Queens includes a burdensome cont r act , no playof f games, a sexual assault accusation that did not result in a charge and major shoulder surgery, was not going to fly higher than the first nohitter in franchise history. June 1 was his best possible night as a Met, and he went for it.
You grab transcendence where you can find it, but you also expect consequences — and it is clear now that Santana is not right, and that it is time to revisit the idea of ending his season.
Si x days a fter allowing eight runs in 11⁄ innings
3 against the Braves, he began Friday with three perfect innings and then surrendered three straight singles followed by a Michael Morse grand slam in the fourth. When Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer in the fifth, Santana became the first Mets pitcher to allow six or more runs in five consecutive starts.
So is it time to shut him down for the year? Asked three times, the man himself did not reject the notion, as a healthy athlete might.
“I don’t k now,” Santana said. “The next outing, we’ll see what the whole situation will be. Right now, I feel fine. We’ll see the next couple days what they have to say, or what we are going to do.”
Later, he added: “Whatever they want to do, as long as it works out for everybody in the long term, I think it will be fine.”
Terry Collins was more optimistic, saying, “Early in the game his command was good, but just all of a sudden he left some balls over the plate. I thought he was very good. … There is a light at the end of the tunnel because you know he is healthy.”
Pitching coach Dan Warthen, asked about shortening Santana’s year, said he expected an internal discussion.
“Certainly we’ll talk about it,” Warthen said. “(GM) Sandy (Alderson) and Terry and I will go in, and we’ll talk, but I was so encouraged by the outing tonight, outside of the score and us losing. But the first three innings being perfect baseball, and we’re seeing a strong, solid, average fastball.”
It is more than reasonable to wonder about Santana’s health. The 33-year-old underwent major shoulder surgery in September 2010, and missed all of last season. For the first several months of this year, he appeared to be mounting a miracle comeback, going 6-4 with a 2.76 ERA through June 1, and throwing the first no-hitter in franchise history.
But he threw a career-high 134 pitches in that game, and dragged horrific numbers out of Friday’s battering. Since the no-hitter: an 8.27 ERA and 13 home runs allowed.
Last Saturday brought a particularly low moment at Citi Field against Atlanta. That loss came in Santana’s first start since returning from the DL with an ankle sprain, shoulder fatigue and general soreness that friends said was more serious than anyone admitted publicly.