Santana Just Too Good As Mets Beat Red Sox 5-3

Johan Santana of the NY Mets showed everybody at Fenway Park and all of Red Sox Nation why he is considered one of the best, if not THE best pitcher in all of baseball. When asked about him, Boston manager Terry Francona said..."God, he's good." Those three words say it all. Daisuke Matsuzaka was OK in his own slow way, but we're all used to that. He threw eighty pitches and gave up four runs on five hits, walked two and struck out four while lasting only five innings. But the game hinged on a botched double play by error prone Julio Lugo. This one wasn't ruled an error but it was clear to me that he threw flat-footed to first with not enough zip to nail the approaching runner. His defensive lapses have been alarming, to say the least. He said this after the game...

"I was trying to stay on the bag and get the first one first, before we do anything," Lugo said quietly. Asked whether he was caught flat-footed on the throw to first base, he said, "I made a throw over there. He just beat it."

Sugar coat it, Julio. Pedey Pedroia kindly said this about the same missed opportunity...

"We just didn't turn it," said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "We have to turn that double play in that situation. That's obvious. Everyone knows that. It just didn't happen."

The Mets ended up scoring three runs in that fourth inning instead of one and the Red Sox never matched their run total. Santana was just too good and Lugo might have cost 'em a game. But I've turned the page and look to Fenway Park tonight at 7:10pm EDT. Josh Beckett, hungry for a good start and a win, will face Mike Pelfrey, whose record is 4-1. GO SOX.

Enjoy your Saturday and the holiday weekend, click on this post's title for more on the Sox and as always, BE WELL. I'll be seeing you...soon.