They are not going to rank as the top rotation tandem in the National League, there still are a few ahead of Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey.
But Santana and Dickey are emerging as one of the NL’s top duos. And lately, there has been few better.
“It’d be tough to find a team that has two guys that are throwing the ball better than Johan and Dickey right now,” David Wright said yesterday, “in either league.”
For the second straight turn, Dickey followed up Santana’s complete game shutout with a scoreless performance of his own. The knuckleballer went the distance, firing a seven-hit shutout while striking out nine in the Mets’ 5-0 win over the Cardinals.
Unlike Santana, Dickey didn’t establish — or flirt with — Mets history. After Dickey followed Santana’s no-hitter with a perfect first inning, Carlos Beltran opened the second with a double. But Dickey was otherwise superb, walking nobody and moving to 8-1 on the season.
In the last 35 1/3 innings the duo has thrown, going back to May 22, they have allowed zero runs. Dickey has thrown 17 1/3 straight scoreless innings, while Santana has racked up 18 straight.
Santana and Dickey can’t match the Phillies’ tandem of Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels (and when healthy, Roy Halladay), and a few other NL teams have them beaten too — the Giants with Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner, or the Nationals with Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez.
Still, Santana and Dickey — despite neither throwing 90 mph either consistently (Santana) or at all (Dickey) — have to rank among the best.
“I think what you’ve seen [Friday] night and today says it all,” catcher Josh Thole said.
In the last 23 years, there has been only one time the Mets have had two starting pitchers on the All-Star team, that coming in 2006 when both Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine earned invites. Santana (2.38 ERA) and Dickey (2.69) are now both in the top 13 in the NL in starters’ ERA entering last night, and if they keep pitching like this for another month or so, they’re good bets both could head to the All-Star Game.
The Mets, who scrapped four of their runs on two RBI groundouts, a run-scoring error and a run-scoring wild pitch, have won eight of 11 and are 30-23, a season-best seven games above .500.
Manager Terry Collins admitted he was worried about a team letdown after Santana’s historic start, but game 8,021 in Mets history wasn’t an issue. In fact, in a telling revelation, Thole declared he has never experienced a better “feel of the clubhouse” than yesterday.
“Everybody was ready to play a ballgame today,” he said.
Dickey, who needed an even 100 pitches to go nine, tied his win total from last year and moved to within three victories of the career-high 11 he earned in 2010. He has struck out 38 and walked just two in his last four starts, and hasn’t lost since April 18.
Dickey said he knew that pitching the day after Santana’s no-hitter would not be easy.
“I went to bed last night just reminding myself to bring what I bring, whatever that is,” he said.
Dickey brought a shutout performance, part of one of the best tandems the National League has.