The Shea Stadium love affair with Johan Santana sure didn’t last long.
Just 62/3 innings into the ace left-hander’s home debut as a Met yesterday, the faithful booed Santana after watching him give up three no-doubt-about-it home runs in a 5-3 loss to the Brewers.
Granted, it was more of a low chorus of jeers than a full-blown shower worthy of Scott Schoeneweis. But they were boos nonetheless for the Mets’ newly acquired star, and Santana appeared shaken by what David Wright labeled his New York “rite of passage.”
Santana, who was also undone by two Wright errors, a misplayed bunt and a still-anemic offense, tried at one point to sympathize with the fans for putting up with years of disappointment.
“That’s the history that they got from [the franchise] not being so good, I guess,” said Santana, who got a standing ovation just four days earlier during pregame introductions for the home opener.
But ultimately, after seven years of pure adulation in Minnesota while winning two Cy Young awards, Santana appeared shocked and shaken to hear boos from the crowd of 54,701 his first time out at Shea.
“I wish we could do everything the way everybody wants, but we’re human beings,” he said. “I know a lot of people are expecting a lot of things from me. If the fans feel that way, they can feel the way they want. We’re not perfect.”
Though Santana was far from perfect yesterday, he pitched well enough to win (seven strikeouts and just two walks) had the Mets done anything after the first inning against Brewers starter Ben Sheets. That wasn’t in the cards, however. Sheets was touched for two runs in the first, snapping his streak of 151/3 scoreless innings to start the season, but used a masterful curveball to frustrate the Amazin’s the rest of the way.
After Wright grounded out with the bases loaded to end the second, the Mets went down meekly aside from a solo Wright homer in the eighth. Sheets put down 18 batters in a row before Wright’s shot to left. Sheets (2-0) struck out five and walked two while giving up five hits in 72/3 innings.
“Ben Sheets was excellent,” Wright said. “He got on a roll and was pretty unhittable after that second inning.”
With Sheets leaving them no margin for error, the Mets were unable to let Santana (1-2) overcome mistake pitches that resulted in the homers by Bill Hall, Rickie Weeks and Gabe Kapler. Kapler’s two-run shot with two out in the seventh, immediately following a four-pitch walk to Weeks, all but sealed the outcome and prompted Santana’s rough serenade to the dugout.
Of course, Wright and a Mets lineup missing leadoff sparkplug Jose Reyes (hamstring) didn’t help Santana’s case with the fans. Wright’s throwing error in the second led to a Milwaukee run, his bases-loaded groundout let a struggling Sheets off the hook, and the Mets were 0-for-5 overall with runners in scoring position.
That merely continued a week-long trend for the Mets’ offense, which has gone into hibernation for the most part after averaging eight runs in the three-game series with the Marlins that opened the season.
Wright and catcher Brian Schneider also hurt Santana with the fans on a Sheets bunt Santana fielded in the second that scored Corey Hart. Instead of telling Santana look back at Hart to keep him at third, Wright and Schneider had Santana throw immediately to first. Hart, a fast runner, took advantage of the miscommunication to scoot in for the run.
“We didn’t do a good job of overall team defense, which forced [Santana] to work a little harder,” Willie Randolph said.
And prompted the fans to boo a little harder when Santana finally exited in the seventh.
“If they boo, then that’s fine,” he said. “Hopefully, the end [results] will be something much better.”