Mets Staying Alive...For Now

METS 6

CUBS 2

It's the understatement of the year, but the Mets needed to win this one ... badly. The Mets who were two and a half behind the Phillies for first in the NL East, and clinging to a one game lead over Milwaukee in the wild card, needed Johan Santana to be the ace they paid for in early Feburary.

Santana did not disappoint. He threw his highest pitch count of his career, 125 pitches and each one of them was filled with oxygen for a Met team that appears ready to die at any moment.

After a rough start, Santana settled down, as he usually does, and painted a Picasso. He went eight innings, surrendered only seven hits, two runs and struck out ten Cubs to earn his 15 win of the season.

Offensively, it took the Mets a while to get going. In fact, Chicago had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, and it appeared that the Mets would choke with their ace on the hill. But that was not the case.

Santana singled to center to get things going in the fifth. Two batters later, David Wright drove in Santana and Nick Evans to tie the game at two.

In the sixth, the Mets exploded. Carlos Delgado led off with a double. Ramon Castro grounded to the pitcher Chad Gaudin, but Gaudin threw the ball away on the relay to first allowing Delgado to score from third. 3-2 Metropolitans. Ryan Chruch and Dan Murphy followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases. Santana came up and battled in a 10 pitch at-bat. He grounded into a force play, as Castro was tagged out at home, and Santana was ruled safe at first.

Jose Reyes tripled to right to clear the bases, giving the Mets a 6-2 lead.

That was all Santana needed as he cruised for the rest of the night. Luis Ayala got the save.

Meantime, the Phillies lost to Atlanta 3-2, so the Phillies lead over the Mets is now down to a game and a half with five to play. Milwaukee is losing to Pittsburgh 3-2 in the seventh inning. If Milwaukee loses, the Mets lead in the wild card is up to two games, all but clinching it with five to play.