NewsMaine cruises behind slammin' Santos
Righty goes six strong; backup catcher crushes first homer
By Marty Noble / MLB.com
04/28/09 12:32 AM ET
NEW YORK -- With merely 10 games under its rotunda, Citi Field still is all about firsts. And it will be for some time. The first hit, first steal, first home run, first save and first victory, among other achievements, already have been accomplished in the hope they eventually will lead to -- where else? -- first place. The Mets played the Marlins on Monday night -- another Citi first -- and, they won primarily because of what happened in, appropriately, the first inning.Omir Santos hit his first big league home run, the Mets' first grand slam and Citi's first salami. The remaining eighth innings were staged for the benefit of John Maine who gained -- what else? -- his first victory in a long time, and the Rotisserians and Seamheads among us.
Santos and Maine were foremost in a 7-1 victory that must be characterized as battery-powered. Santos is the 27-year-old catcher in the process of making a strong first impression. And Maine is a primary reclamation project, a pitcher the Mets need to perform at a high level if they are to extend Citi's inaugural season beyond early October.
Their contributions left little for the others to handle. Santos' slam and the two runs that preceded it eliminated all sense of drama, which is not to say what followed was unimportant. Maine produced a long-awaited renaissance start -- he hadn't won in six starts, four this season, and hadn't completed the sixth inning in eight. And David Wright made contact in each of his four at-bats; nary a strikeout. Of such elements is progress made.
The Mets still didn't look quite like the team they believe they are. Left field produced another error -- though not by Daniel Murphy -- and the offense catnapped between their first and final turns at-bat. But they asserted themselves against a team that now has lost seven successive games after beginning the season with 11 victories in 12 games and beat a pitcher, Anibal Sanchez, who had tamed them 17 days earlier.
"We're getting there," Wright said.
Maine (1-2) decelerated his delivery and accelerated his fastball, which he used almost exclusively in the early innings. He surrendered an unearned run in the first when Gary Sheffield misplayed a mostly routine fly ball to left. A single by Jorge Cantu, the lone hit Maine allowed, followed three batters later, but it wasn't as if Maine bowed to the adversity as Oliver Perez appeared to Sunday following a Murphy muff. Maine followed Cantu's hit with two of his four strikeouts. Aside from three walks, Maine was in control until his removal after 94 pitches. He won for the first time since Aug. 13, the first time since his offseason shoulder surgery.
He wasn't flawless. His last two batters reached the warning track and the walks unsettled him.
"But it's a start," Maine said, "a positive step forward."
He had worked to slow his delivery between starts after finding rush-hour mechanics were undermining his pitches.
"I get too excited at times," he said. "It hurts me."
Santos' well-struck home run -- it cleared the left-center-field wall by a healthy margin -- allowed Maine to throw most of his pitches with room for error. The rookie hit a 1-1 fastball and became the third player in franchise history to hit a grand slam as his first career home run. Pitcher Jack Hamilton did it in 1967, and Jose Reyes notched his six years ago.
"It was a great, great moment," Santos said, still glowing hours after the fact. "I knew it would at least hit the wall. But this is a big park."
He received a curtain call, a personal first, after his teammates explained the phenomenon.
"I didn't know the fans wanted me," he said.
Santos started for the third successive game. For now, as manager Jerry Manuel makes evaluations, he has displaced Ramon Castro as the primary catching understudy. Manuel said before the game he might face a difficult decision when regular catcher Brian Schneider ends his assignment to the disabled list, which will be Sunday at the earliest. After the game, the manager reinforced that thinking.
"He does make it tough for us," Manuel said. "I want to take a good look. Spring Training is not a good time to make evaluations. ... But I do I like what he does for us.
"He handles the game plan well, the pitchers like throwing to him. He has a short stroke, so he puts the ball in play. And he doesn't run bad."
Santos, who turns 28 Wednesday, spent seven seasons in the Yankees' chain then signed with the Orioles last year and made his big league debut. A Minor League free agent again in the winter, he signed with the Mets at his family's urging, choosing them rather than the Braves, Marlins or Orioles.
"They [the Orioles] wanted me back," Santos said. "But I figured I'd try something new. This is a great team and a great city. On every corner someone speaks Spanish.
"It's all about getting an opportunity. And now I am."
Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
