Santana Bad butJerry Manuel Worse

I couldn’t be more disappointed.

The Mets lost to the Phillies 11-5 last night after Johan Santana handed in the worst performance of his career, looking more like Jamie Moyer than did Jamie Moyer. Santana’s fastball had nothing, his changeup wasn’t much different from his fastball, and his control was non-existent.

I had a bad feeling about this game after I saw the lineup. In the biggest game of this season, the Mets played it as if it mattered not at all. The energy-sucking guys were back in the lineup, Tatis and Matthews, replacing the hot rookie Ike Davis and Angel Pagan, who had just begun to hit. It was as if Manager Jerry Manuel was letting Philadelphia know that this game just wasn’t that important.

It’s really a shame.

No matter how bad Santana was , I’m putting this loss squarely on Jerry Manuel. The lineup he put together was stupid, especially given the situation. He didn’t seem to care if his team lost and his players followed his lead. Wright hit a 3-run shot and Barajas homered too but it only mattered for an inning or so as Santana and Manuel quickly gave it all back.

I’m tired of watching Tatis and that infuriating uppercut swing of his. Matthews is just horrible. He doesn’t look right in a uniform. He doesn’t look like an athlete. He doesn’t perform like an athlete. He’s batting .139. Tatis is batting .212.

There’s a word for the way Manuel approached that game last night….chicken. Manuel played it like a gentle mother, having her boy avoid those big guys on the block. Just walk the other way. Don’t go near those people.

I know that Matthews supposedly plays better defense than Pagan. I know Tatis has more experience than Davis, but what about the feeling of the team? What about combativeness?

I want a fighter leading my team. Billy Martin wouldn’t have played Matthews or Tatis last night. He would have played his starting lineup. So would Piniella. So would Leland. So would Girardi. So would Randolph. (And it kills me to say so).

I’m disgusted with Manuel’s over-thinking in critical situations. There must’ve been a reason to leave Santana in the game last night, after he walked a 47-year-old pitcher. Nine out of ten managers would have taken Santana out immediately…..do not pass go….do not collect $200.

Manuel didn’t want to embarrass his ace. He embarrassed him more by leaving him in. Of course, there was nobody warming up so there really was no alternative. After a double, two singles and two walks, there was still no action in the Mets bullpen.

Once again, it was a gentle motherly type of decision. Most managers act more like fathers, fathers who understand the importance of winning over the niceties of saving face for your starting pitcher, fathers who’d have recognized that it was a big game, one for which you put in your best lineup.

Before this series even started, I maintained that the Mets were the more balanced team. And they are. But Jerry Manuel, in his infinite wisdom, didn’t take advantage.

His counterpart in the Phillies dugout, Charlie Manuel, acknowledged his weaknesses, avoiding his thin bullpen, allowing his 47-year old pitcher to hit with the bases loaded in that incredible fourth inning. If the pitcher made an out, the Phils would still have been down by two runs. But Charlie Manuel avoided that bullpen of his, at all costs, even that of losing the chance to take the lead.

That the Mets were playing their second team made Charlie’s decision easier. Moyer had been mowing them down. Surely Moyer was a good choice to face that weakened lineup until his arm fell off, or until his fastball dipped below 70, whichever came first.

You can pitch around a National League lineup, especially one with only six hitters in it. Taking Davis and Pagan out of the lineup left the Mets with only 3 real power threats, Wright, Bay and Francoeur. Pitching carefully to just three batters beats having to do so against five.

That was a bad loss, any way you look at it. Santana was awful. He’s the ace. He walked a 47-year old pitcher with the bases jammed. Even after that, the Mets still led by one. Santana was obviously rattled.

The Mets bullpen had shown that it was one of the best in the league. Just about any choice from that bullpen would have been a better one than that of leaving your rattled ace on the rubber in that raucous atmosphere of Citizens Bank Park.

As bad as Santana was though, Jerry Manuel was worse. He had no pitchers warming up. So that fantastic bullpen, with strikeout pitchers in it like Takahashi didn’t get an opportunity to face Victorino, whose grand slam put the Mets down by three, or Polanco, who singled before Utley’s two-run shot to right that put the final nail in the Mets coffin, a coffin designed and meticulously constructed by Jerry Manuel.

It’s a shame too because this was a key game. The Mets playing the importance of the game down doesn’t make it so. Manuel’s bad decisions both before and during the game cost them dearly, and the Mets may lose a few more games due to the letdown.

It was a huge loss. It was a 2-game swing in the standings. Instead of being 1 ½ games up, in first place in the NL East, they are now ½ game behind. All the good things about this season were largely erased last night, the holding together of Maine and Perez, the outstanding performances of Pelfrey and Niese and the bullpen, the sparkling play of Francoeur and newbie Ike Davis.

Jerry Manuel played his backups and made a bad pitching situation much worse. Never has a Mets manager been so thoroughly out-managed, not that I can recall.

Sometimes good things can come from a loss. This is not one of those times.