Your Second Half Has Come

So if Johan Santana had hit somebody with a pitch and started a bench clearing brawl, would it have been a Gordie Howe hat trick?

66-46 with a 3.43 ERA in the first half, compared to 61-19 with a 2.73 ERA in the second half in his career.  A home run and a shutout in his first start of the second half seems just about right to me.  As did you I’m sure, I especially liked how Snoop came to the mound to take Santana out of the game after Jason Bay whiffed on a fly ball, and Johan said “If I have to sit through another Frankie save I’m going to end up in the hospital and take you with me.”  I think that changed his mind pretty good.

All right, maybe Johan didn’t say that … exactly.  And maybe he never referenced Rodriguez at all.  But still, damn impressive.  Maybe telling Snoop to leave him in the game counts as the third leg of the Gordie trick.

Vintage Johan … Statement Game … The Demise of Johan Santana Has Been Greatly Exaggerated … and any other cliché phrase you want to throw out there.  They all apply.  I think Santana understood that the whole “well he doesn’t get as many wins as he should because other teams’ aces are shutting the Mets order down” theory wasn’t going to apply against Matt Maloney.  What it boiled down to was that I think we needed a reminder that Johan is still Johan.  And he doesn’t even need an ESPN hour long special on Thursday to tell us that.