The Astros paid Johan Santana the ultimate compliment last night: They had their infield playing on the grass in the first inning.
It was a rarely seen strategy, but also a totally understandable one with the way runs are so few and far between against the Mets’ ace these days.
Though Houston manager Cecil Cooper’s gambit backfired, Santana eventually proved him right in theory, stifling the Astros for seven innings in a 3-0 win that continued the first-place Mets’ August surge.
“It’s a nice feeling when you see that,” Santana said of the Astros playing the infield in so early. “That means they know it’s going to be a close game.”
Santana’s superb effort paced the Amazin’s to their 10th win in 11 games and kept them 2 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East as interim manager Jerry Manuel’s club eyes a two-game series in Philadelphia next week.
The Astros made Santana work for his fifth victory without a loss in nine starts since July 9 as the left-hander fired a career-high 121 pitches. The end result, though, was more August domination by Santana.
Since becoming a full-time starter with the Twins in 2002, Santana is an astounding 26-3 with a 2.03 ERA in the month of August. Three of those wins have come as a Met, who are expecting plenty more where that came from – both in August and beyond.
“He’s been everything we could have hoped for,” Manuel said. “He looks like the same pitcher who dominated us [with the Twins] when I was [managing] the White Sox.”
As well as a scintillating change-up that helped produce five strikeouts, Santana flashed a competitive streak by badgering Manuel to keep him in the game in the sixth inning despite being over 100 pitches.
Santana’s pleading had as much to do with the opposing pitcher – Astros ace Roy Oswalt – as it did Santana’s desire to protect a Mets bullpen that’s missing closer Billy Wagner. Santana had come up alongside Oswalt in Houston’s farm system, and he wasn’t about to be shown up by his former teammate while Oswalt was in the midst of throwing a complete game.
“[Santana] had mentioned that the other guy was still out there,” Manuel said with a laugh. “I thought that, for what he’s done on the mound, I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. I thought that was only fair to him.”
Santana did his part in the seventh, keeping the Astros off the scoreboard despite a one-out single, then turned it over to a relief corps that appears to be rejuvenated by the arrival of ex-Nationals right hander Luis Ayala.
David Wright’s RBI flare over the drawn-in infield in the first and a two-run homer by catcher Brian Schneider in the second held up. Aaron Heilman pitched a perfect eighth, and Ayala threw a spotless ninth to give the Mets their first win over Houston in four tries this season.
But as good as the bullpen pitched, Santana was the story of the night for the Mets. It was his second consecutive start without allowing a run after a complete-game shutout last weekend in Pittsburgh.
Santana (12-7) has given up just one run in his past 22 innings and would no doubt be in contention for his third Cy Young Award if not for the bullpen’s role in his eight no-decisions this year.
“Right now, we’ve got a great momentum going and everything is right there in front of us, so I know I need to do my part to help out,” Santana said. “At this point in the season, you want to show you’re able to go deep in the game. We need that now even more because we don’t have Billy, so what happened tonight was very satisfying.”
And as the Astros showed in the first inning, hardly surprising.
bhubbuch@nypost.com
Mets 3 Astros 0