Johan Santana’s struggles continued tonight against the Dodgers, as he was chased after being knocked around for six runs over just three innings. It matched the second-shortest start of his career.
Santana gave up seven hits in all, including a two-run homer to Matt Kemp in the first inning and a two-run homer to Luis Cruz in the third. He walked three and struck out three and threw 45 out of 72 pitches for strikes.
Santana has now allowed 19 runs over his past three starts and six runs or more in each of them. The southpaw is just the third Mets’ pitcher to give up six runs or more in three straight starts, joining Pedro Astacio and Bobby Jones. He’s the fourth pitcher in the majors to do it this season, along with Joe Blanton, Bruce Chen and Mike Minor.
Santana, who missed all of last season while rehabbing his surgically-repaired left shoulder, now has a 3.98 ERA in 110 1/3 innings through 19 starts this season. This includes an ugly 6.54 ERA in eight starts since he threw a career-high 134 pitches in his no-hitter against the Cardinals back on June 1. Perhaps he was due to hit a wall at some point anyway, but given how much he has struggled recently, it’s hard not to look back to his workload from that historic evening in Queens.