Mets ace Johan Santana had the worst performance of his major league career yesterday. In three short innings, he allowed nine hits, two walks and nine earned runs.
In his previous three losses on the season, Santana allowed a total of only three earned runs.
Per Burt Hubbuch of the New York Post, Santana admitted that he had some physical ailments - blisters on the middle finger of his left hand and on his toe as well as a sore back. Yet he claims those ailments have nothing to do with yesterday's outing and his 6.50 ERA over his past six starts.
"What happened is, I made a few mistakes locating my pitches," Santana said.
Pitching coach Dan Warthen says, "He's fought through [blister] almost a month, but now that it's healed, the ball plane has changed." Manager Jerry Manuel agreed, saying "physically, he's in good shape. It's a delivery issue."
Santana took exception to a reporter asking about a "dead arm," according to Hubbuch.
"Who calls that? You? How you know that?" Santana barked at a reporter who asked him about dead arm. "No, that's not even close. I'm fine. There's not much I can say. I'm fine."
