The “L” went beside Johan Santana’s name, but if you listen to the Mets ace, you can’t pin it all on him.
The prize offseason acquisition suffered another hard-luck loss Saturday, as the Amazin’s bowed to the Yankees, 3-2, in a Subway Series showdown at Shea Stadium.
The Mets’ $137.5 million man has now dropped his last four decisions despite a sterling 3.01 ERA overall, and the Amazin’s have lost each of his past five starts.
“All I can say is that I’m doing my job,” said Santana (7-7). “Other than that, there’s nothing else I can do. I can’t go out there and do the things that my teammates have to do.”
Though the Bombers didn’t batter Santana by any means, they did just enough in the rain-delayed contest to end Santana’s personal dominance against them.
A sixth-inning balk call on Santana by home plate umpire Mike Everitt on a pickoff attempt against Alex Rodriguez proved costly when Rodriguez came around to score the decisive run on Robinson Cano’s single.
Cano’s big hit, which came after the Mets intentionally walked Jorge Posada to get to him, led to the ex-Twin’s first loss in five career regular-season decisions against the Yankees.
The clutch stroke from Cano also let Yanks starter Andy Pettitte avenge a Subway Series loss to Santana last month in The Bronx, while keeping Pettitte undefeated in June (4-0).
Pettitte gave up two solo homers, but that was all the punchless Mets could muster off him in six innings of five-hit ball that included a 53-minute rain delay. Three relievers combined to improve Pettitte to 9-5 overall, and the veteran lefty has won six consecutive decisions since May 23.
“You hope that you can score some runs, but you know that it’s going to be a tough game [against Santana],” Pettitte said. “He’s a great pitcher.”
Pettitte also helped his cause in the fifth with a two-out pickoff of Jose Reyes at second base that Joe Girardi considered decisive.
“That was huge,” Girardi said. “It was the turning point of the game. It shut them down and got Andy out of jam. Reyes has the ability to steal third base.”
Santana’s latest loss was especially frustrating because, for the most part, he was as stifling as the humidity at Shea Saturday. He struck out the side in the second and allowed just four hits while fanning eight overall in six innings.
“I don’t know if he can pitch any better than how he’s pitched [in these past five starts],” said Jerry Manuel, whose team has two runs in its past two games combined. “Us not scoring runs puts a lot of stress on every pitch. He feels like he can’t make a mistake.”
What few problems Santana encountered started in the fourth, when – after retiring nine of the first 10 Yankees hitters – he inexplicably walked Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu to lead off the inning.
Santana blamed Everitt’s exceedingly tight strike zone more than himself for the baserunners, and both he and Jerry Manuel told Everitt so during a quick Manuel mound visit.
After a Rodriguez followed with a single to load the bases, the Yankees erased went ahead to stay on an RBI groundout by Jason Giambi and a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Posada.
Then came the decisive sixth, when Santana sowed the seeds of another loss by walking Rodriguez with one out.
Santana appeared to pick Rodriguez off on a steal attempt, but Everitt waved it off as a balk after noting – correctly – that Santana had already moved to the plate.Santana appeared to recover quickly, striking out Jason Giambi before Manuel ordered him to walk Posada to get to Cano. But that move backfired immediately when Cano drilled his second single to score Rodriguez with what would prove to be the winning run.
“What an ace has to do is give you a chance to win every night, and that’s what [Santana] does,” Manuel said. “He’s keeping us in games, but we’re just not getting the job done offensively.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com