Published November 20, 2014
Johan Santana pitched a four-hitter for his first shutout since 2010 and the New York Mets backed him with three home runs in a 9-0 win over the San Diego Padres 9-0 Saturday.
Mike Nickeas hit New York's first grand slam of the season, and Scott Hairston and Vinny Rottino also homered for the Mets, who got it done without a contribution from David Wright once again.
Wright went 0 for 3 with a walk, dropping his batting average to .390. He was hitting .405 after Thurday's game.
The Mets won for the fifth time in seven games and have homered in three straight games and their last four at Citi Field. Their modest output — five homers in the last three games — looked downright bountiful compared with the rest of the season — New York began the day 29th in the big leagues with 27 homers.
Santana's last shutout was Aug. 12, 2010, a 4-0 win over the Colorado Rockies that came less than a month before shoulder surgery cost him the rest of the year and all of 2011.
The Padres, who have dropped five of six, lost outfielder Cameron Maybin to a right wrist injury. He was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning.
After allowing a leadoff single to Chase Headley in the second, Santana retired 16 straight before Jesus Guzman singled with one out in the seventh.
Santana didn't walk a batter and struck out seven. Two of the Padres hits were less than well-struck. Yonder Alonso hit a blooper in the first and Blake Tekotte had an infield single in the ninth, though he was erased on a double play.
Nickeas hit a grand slam with two outs in the eighth inning, bringing Santana to the plate for a warm round of applause before he watched four pitches go by, took his strikeout and went out to finish off what had to be his most satisfying outing of the season.
Fans stood and cheered after the Mets turned a double play in the ninth inning, and then Alonso hit a dribbler down the line. Santana fielded it, stood there waiting, and then tagged Alonso out to finish his 14th career game and ninth career shutout. Santana smacked the Padres' batter on his backside, then went to shake hands.
Santana (2-2) had gone without a decision in his last three starts, all Mets losses, and had six no-decisions in his first nine.
Clayton Richard (2-6) faced two batters over the minimum in his final five innings, thanks to a double play and a successful pickoff, after Hairston singled in the sixth. Overall, the left-hander allowed four runs in six innings, five hits, three walks and struck out five.
Andres Torres led off the first with a single, Wright walked and they both moved up on a balk that proved inconsequential when Hairston send a high rainbow off the top part of what had been the wall in left before the Mets moved the fences in before this season.
Rottino followed with his first major league home run, a drive to left-center that also would have been in play last season.
NOTES: Sunday's starter for the Padres is Edinson Volquez. The right-hander needs six strikeouts to overtake Anthony Bass (55) for the Padres' lead. Mets RHP R.A. Dickey will pitch for New York. The knuckleballer has fanned 51 and walked 16 in 57 1-3 innings. ... Padres 1B Alonso hit a blooper to shallow left-center in the first inning that fell in, giving him a hit in 25 of his last 27 games.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/santana-gets-shutout-mets-beat-padres-9-0