As Pelfrey wins 10th, Santana gets break

By Joe Lapointe
June 25, 2010


New York, NY — As the winning pitcher for the Mets in Friday night’s snappy 5-2 victory over Minnesota at Citi Field, Mike Pelfrey raised his record to 10-2 to enhance his profile as the current ace of the staff and one of the best in major league baseball in a season of pitching revival.

In giving up two runs on six hits over six innings, Pelfrey was buoyed by David Wright’s home run and Ruben Tejada’s tricky scoring slide on Jose Reyes’s sacrifice fly.

In winning for the third time in their last four games, the 11th time in their last 14 over all and their 13th in their last 15 at home, the Mets characteristically blended good fielding and determined bunting into their successful mix.

But one of the headline performers for this weekend’s interleague series was a Met who was not even in action Friday: Johan Santana will start Saturday’s game amid mixed undercurrents.

It will be Santana’s first regular-season appearance against the Twins since they traded him after the 2007 season. Before Friday’s game, Santana stood by the batting cage, on the visitors’ side, smiling and chatting and hugging the visitors.

Santana said his seasons in Minnesota were filled with “great memories, the best ones that I have in my career.” Saturday, he said, is “going to be very intense.”

“It’s going to be fun at the same time,” he said.

Santana seemed relaxed and happy to be talking about baseball at the end of a difficult week that has damaged his reputation.

In recent days, Santana has provided only terse and prepared answers to reports that a female acquaintance accused him of sexual assault last October in Fort Myers, Fla.

Although Santana told police that he had sex on a golf course, he said it was consensual and the Lee County Sheriff’s Department declined to file charges.

Compared to those allegations and his responses, Friday’s conversation was free-flowing.

Santana was traded by the Twins in part for budget reasons. But they have since moved to a new stadium and expanded their payroll. Before this season, they signed Joe Mauer, the catcher and the most valuable player in the American League, to an eight-year deal for $184 million.

“I’m a little bit surprised but at the same time very happy for them,” said Santana, whose Mets’ contract is for six years at $137.5 million.

Mauer, who has missed time this season due to injuries, came into Friday’s game batting .309 with 3 home runs and 32 runs batted in. Santana said Mauer was a pleasure to play with.

“He does it all,” Santana said of Mauer. “He’s a very smart guy. He pays attention. He can read and anticipate everything. At the same time, he’s very patient. He doesn’t panic.”

Mauer said Santana is “a good friend of mine” and is the sort of pitcher who makes catchers look good. But, he added, “When we step between those lines, it’s going to be a little different.”

Santana, when reminded that catchers sometimes rest on day games after night games, smiled and said: “I don’t care. If he wants to play, great. If not, perfect.”

Santana’s record of 5-4 includes an earned run average of 3.31. Although the statistics are respectable, they are below his career standards.

The 31-year-old Santana entered the season with a 122-60 career record, and an E.R.A. of 3.12. He has struggled at times this season with lower velocity; he pitched his first major-league game in 2000.

He said Friday that he continued to adjust to surgery last Sept. 1 to remove bone chips from his left elbow. “I’m still making adjustments,” Santana said. “The doctor told me it would be up to a year to fully recover.”

But most of the conversation was about happy memories, including four division championships in the A.L. Central when Santana was with the Twins.

One of the funniest moments, he said, was after a game at Shea Stadium in 2007. Bert Blyleven, the former Twins pitcher and current broadcaster, dared him on the bus before that game to pitch a complete-game shutout.

If Santana did it, Blyleven vowed, he would allow all the hair to be removed from his head. Santana then pitched a 9-0 shutout, completing the game.

“The next day, he was a man of his word and I ended up shaving his head,” Santana said, adding that Blyleven told him Friday he would not make the same dare again.

On Friday night, the Twins scored first when the game’s leadoff hitter, Denard Span, hit a home run. The Mets took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning with four hits that included doubles by Wright and Jason Bay.

It was the fourth consecutive defeat for the Twins, who made two errors. Bobby Parnell pitched a perfect seventh inning for the Mets; Pedro Feliciano did the same in the eighth.

In the ninth inning, closer Francisco Rodriguez allowed two hits and stumbled off the mound in an awkward follow-through, but he earned his 17th save.

•  MLB News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
•  MLB Tickets
•  World Series Tickets