Game #47: Mets 9, Padres 0

Johan Santana tips his cap to the Mets faithful after his complete-game four-hitter vs. Padres Saturday. (NYDailyNews.com)

They gave him a 4-run cushion. And this time, Johan Santana didn't squander it.

Santana tossed a complete-game shutout and three home runs gave him more than enough run support as the Mets dominated the Padres, 9-0.

The Good Stuff:

• Johan Santana got high run support his last time out in Pittsburgh, but a weak Pirate offense managed to get the best of him. This time, Santana was masterful on the mound, channeling his Cy Young-worthy days in Minnesota and pitching a complete-game 4-hit shutout in 2 hours 18 minutes and 96 pitches.
• San Diego starter Clayton Richard also threw 96 pitches in 6 innings, but it was his first 26 that most helped the home team.
• Andres Torres singled, then after Justin Turner flew out, David Wright drew a walk to bring up Scott Hairston. After Torres forced Richard to balk, Hairston golfed a low 3-2 fastball into the Party City Deck to give his team a 3-0 lead.
• After Lucas Duda hit a groundball for out number 2, Vinny Rottino came up with something to prove. At age 32, career minor leaguer Rottino was still looking for his first big league home run. On a 2-1 fastball, Vinny swung and sent one that just kept going, going, going all the way over the fence. 4-0, lifelong dream realized, Mets in the lead.
• The scoring stopped until the 8th inning when New York poured it on like the rain from Thursday night.
• Justin Turner led off with a single against former Met Dale Thayer. After David Wright grounded out to advance Turner to second, Ike Davis came up to pinch hit. Davis had 4 RBIs in the series already and looked for more, driving a ball to the wall in left center for an RBI double.
• Ike's resurgence would've been enough to close the story for the day, but Mike Nickeas had other ideas. Four batters later the bases were loaded for light-hitting Nickeas, and on an 0-1 fastball he swung hard and drove it hard for his second career home run, the team's first grand slam of 2012, and a nail in the Padre coffin.

The Bad Stuff:

• First time I've got to say this this year: these kinds of games spoil us as fans! After such a great outing, just about anything that can come tomorrow will be a letdown. Well, just about everything...the only thing that could be better is the one thing that separates us from the Padres in one key category.

Final Analysis:
And I thought yesterday's win was a dominant one. Johan was vintage, the power was there, and Ike's re-surging. What could be more Amazin'? Keep it up, boys.

MM