New York @ Florida preview
Sun Life Stadium
Last Meeting ( Apr 8, 2010 ) Florida 3, NY Mets 1
Not like it’s ever a good time to face Johan Santana, but the Marlins look especially vulnerable offensively lately. The Marlins averaged only 3.3 runs per game during their recent road trip and hit .210 (42-for-200) a pair of series against the Nationals and Cubs.
Somehow they managed to scrape out a 3-3 record.
In Wednesday’s 4-3 loss at Wrigley Field the Marlins snapped a season-long eight-game stretch with a single-digit hit total, but all 10 of their hits were singles.
Santana is the third former Cy Young award winner the Marlins are facing in nine games. During their previous homestand the Marlins caught Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito as part of a three-game set that the Giants swept.
This meeting of opposing aces is a rematch of the Opening Day, when Santana gave up a run on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts in his team’s 7-1 win at Citi Field. Johnson lasted five-plus innings and gave up four runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts. That resulted in his first ever loss in 10 career starts against the Mets. Johnson can still boast a 7-1 lifetime mark with a 2.69 ERA against them.
Santana’s career numbers against the Marlins are no less impressive. In eight outings, he’s 6-1 with a 1.66 ERA, 16 walks, 65 strikeouts and a .177 batting average against in 54 1/3 innings. Two of those wins have come at Sun Life Stadium, which is where the Marlins logged their lone victory against him on April 12, 2009.
In seven starts versus the Marlins since joining the Mets, Santana has never pitched fewer than six innings and has allowed more than two runs only once.
He’s been especially tough on the Marlins’ double-play tandem of Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez. The two are a combined 4-for-37 (.108) with one homer, one RBI and 17 strikeouts off him.
The Marlins can take solace in the fact Santana has had some soft spots this season. The Mets are 5-2 over his first seven outings, but just four of those have been quality starts. He went a season-high 7 2/3 innings his last time out against the Giants, giving up four runs on eight hits in the no-decision. The start before that, the Phillies tagged him for 10 runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Similarly, Johnson has looked like an ace at times for the Marlins. He was brilliant in an April 26 complete-game win over the Padres during which he walked one and struck out 12. Johnson, meanwhile, hasn’t completed more than six innings in any of his six other starts.