MLB

JOHAN BLANKS FISH, KEEPS METS IN RACE

Just like last season, it will come down to the final day.

Johan Santana made sure of that yesterday afternoon with a season-saving display of phenomenal pitching in the Mets’ 2-0 win over the Marlins at raucous Shea Stadium.

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Taking the mound just three days after tossing a career-high 125 pitches, the Mets’ $137.5 Million Man earned every cent with a three-hit, 117-pitch complete game that kept their playoff hopes alive.

Santana’s gem paved the way for yet another must-win situation today in Shea’s regular-season sendoff. The Mets lost the NL East crown to the victorious Phillies, who clinched yesterday, but are tied with the Brewers in the wild-card race with one game left for each team after the Cubs beat Milwaukee.

If the Mets and Milwaukee both win today, the Mets would play host to a one-game playoff tomorrow.

And they can thank Santana’s Herculean effort yesterday for all of it.

“If I had to describe that one, I’d say that was gangsta,” said a giddy manager Jerry Manuel, who had to be prodded this week to let Santana start on short rest. “That was serious gangsta right there.”

Even though Santana had won eight consecutive decisions since June 28 as the day began, Manuel and the Mets had little idea what to expect from their star because Santana had pitched on three days rest just once in his career – and that was four years ago.

They needn’t have worried.

“I expected to win,” Santana said. “There was no tomorrow, and that’s how I approached the game.”

Santana’s trademark change-up was in superb form from the outset, as he allowed just two runners to reach base through the first four innings and just one baserunner past second base for the game while striking out nine.

The free-swinging Marlins helped out Santana by hacking at numerous first pitches, enabling Santana to keep his personal count below 100 pitches through seven innings.

Santana was so fresh late in the game that he refused to even look at Manuel when the Mets’ interim boss came to him in the seventh and asked how his arm was holding up.

“I was going for it,” said Santana, who improved to 9-0 in his past 17 starts and 16-7 overall. “I never thought about pitch counts or it [possibly] being the last game.”

Manuel had Luis Ayala warm up in the ninth, but the manager admitted afterward that Ayala’s appearance in the bullpen was mainly for show.

“[Santana] wouldn’t let you pull him out,” Manuel said. “He wasn’t going to come out. That was special today, very special.”

Santana’s wheeling and dealing not only energized his teammates, but it sent the near-capacity crowd at Shea into a frenzy in the late innings. They chanted “Jo-han!” repeatedly and showered Santana with repeated standing ovations as he closed in on the clutch win.

“It got me going,” Santana said of the crowd response. “The fans were supporting me from the first pitch to the last, and that’s what you like to see. The whole team needed that. It was a great experience and a great atmosphere.”

Santana’s outing was even more impressive because the Mets’ weak bats forced him to walk a high wire throughout.

Manuel’s club got a quick run off Marlins ace Ricky Nolasco (15-8) in the first inning but went quietly after that, ratcheting up the tension for Santana’s every pitch in the process.

That tension couldn’t have been any higher than in the ninth, when Josh Willingham laced a one-out double before Mets killer Cody Ross came up as the tying run with two outs.

Ross then drilled a 1-2 pitch from Santana high into the air in left field, prompting a terrified gasp from the crowd until the ball finally settled into replacement left fielder Endy Chavez’s glove on the warning track for the final out.

“He was the real deal,” David Wright said of Santana. “He wants the ball, he wants to be in that situation. It was fun to be part of something special. That was probably the best pitching performance that I’ve ever been a part of.”

bhubbuch@nypost.com