I bear no ill feelings toward Johan Santana. He wanted the biggest stage, a different environment and the Mets showed him a lot of money. When he pitches against American League teams, I hope he cuts them off at the knees. If he’s pitching, I go out of my way to watch a few innings.

That being said, I wonder if something’s up.

In his three previous starts before Saturday, Johan yielded 17 earned runs in 16 innings –  including a nine ER-in-3 IP afternoon against the Yankees. On Saturday, most of the stats show that he was back to his better self against Tampa Bay, losing the game but giving up only two runs on three hits and three walks in a loss to the Rays.

The problem?

Strikeouts.

When Santana beat Washington at the end of last month, he struck out 11 Nationals in six innings. In his last four starts, he has struck out 11 in 23 1/3. His percentage of swinging strikes (15 percent and 13 percent in his Cy Young seasons with the Twins) dropped from 14 percent in April and May to 8 percent so far this month.

Last week, former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson (who was fired in the middle of last season) said he’d heard “some rumors” about Santana’s knee bothering him in the aftermath of off-season surgery. Santana and the Mets were miffed that Peterson was sounding off and Peterson isn’t the most objective of observers right now — kind of like Kevin McHale talking about the Wolves.

But still, Santana averaged 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings with the Twins, including his first two strikeout-poor seasons when he was working out of the Twins bullpen. With the Mets — and despite facing pitchers instead of DHs — he’s struck out 8.4 per nine. In April and May of this season, he struck out 11.7 per nine.

In his last four starts, that stat has tumbled to 4.2 per nine.

The Mets are saying that all is good and Santana will rebound, which I hope is the case. But the NewYork media has been reduced to columns with “Santana pitches well despite loss”-type headlines. In one, Santana got support from the baseball sage Livan Hernandez: “Johan is the best pitcher in the game, but he’s not a machine. He’s human. He’s not going to pitch a perfect game every time. But we know he is going to come back strong because that is the way his mind is.”

Johan’s next start is Thursday afternoon against the Cardinals, which means he won’t face the Yankees again this weekend. That’ll eliminate all the pressure, right?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.