SportsDystopia

With the New York Mets’ playoff hopes running on fumes, team ace Johan Santana met with manager Jerry Manuel, and demanded to be started Saturday on 3 days rest.  The originally scheduled starter for the Mets was Jonathon Niese, with a 7.07 ERA after only 3 career MLB outings.  But Santana stepped up and asked for the ball, and the result was a 2-0 victory over the Marlins, and a 3-hit shutout by Santana that ranks as one of the most impressive pitching performances in recent memory.  The much maligned bullpen got to take the day off, as he left nothing to chance.

The win meant that the Mets were tied with the Brewers in the wild-card race, after Milwaukee dropped a hideous 7-3 game to the Cubs.  Ben Sheets lasted just 2 and 1/3 innings in his first start since leaving a game earlier in the month with forearm tightness.  Making the loss even more bitter was that the Cubs were in full-out rest mode, with all of their everyday players getting the day off, but the Chicago back-ups and September call-ups rapped out 11 hits and scored 7 runs.  And when Milwaukee had scored 3 runs in the 7th and 8th innings to cut the deficit to 4-3, their closer Salomon Torres promptly surrendered a 2 run home run to Kosuke Fukudome, and left the game without having recorded an out.

In the AL, Minnesota lost 4-2 to the Royals, surrendering an opportunity to essentially ice the Central division, as the White Sox were also on their way to another ugly loss to Cleveland.  This meant that the Twins and Sox had gone 0-4 so far on the weekend, neither team able to make any sort of move in the standings.  But then, maybe that’s appropriate, considering that the teams have been separated by no more than 2 and a half games for the last two months.

If it weren’t for a beautiful performance by Johan Santana, it would have been one ugly Saturday.

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