(Best E Casino) - After signing Johan Santana to a monster six-year extension upon his acquisition this past offseason, the
New York Mets would love to see him win his 200th game in his new uniform. Santana takes the first step towards that goal tonight, when his club continues a four-game series with the
San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
Santana won the 100th game of his career last time out, defeating the Dodgers on Sunday. The 29-year-old held Los Angeles to a run on six hits over 7 2/3 innings, while striking out six in the victory. The left-hander improved to 7-3 with a 3.20 earned run average on the season, and 100-47 in his career.
The two-time American League Cy Young Award winner won the first 93 of those games with the Minnesota Twins, but after signing a six-year extension with the Mets in February, it appears he'll be dominating the NL for the next few seasons.
Santana will start tonight against San Diego, which he faced just twice in his career and went 1-1 with a 3.55 ERA.
The Padres counter with a southpaw of their own in Randy Wolf, who is 1-1 in his last four starts despite a 2.84 ERA in that span. Wolf has posted consecutive no-decisions, even though he has given up just three runs in that span. That includes a start on Sunday against the Giants, with the 31-year-old yielding just a run on four hits over six innings.
Wolf is 3-4 with a 4.33 ERA this year and 2-1 in five home starts. He has won his last three decisions against the Mets, improving his mark to 9-5 lifetime against them with a 3.44 ERA in 25 career starts.
Wolf will need to keep the Mets off the scoreboard with his struggling offense facing Santana. San Diego has scored just two runs in each of its last two games, but both ended up being 2-1 victories.
San Diego won Thursday's opener in odd fashion, as Paul McAnulty was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. New York's Scott Schoeneweis plunked McAnulty to take the loss, forcing home Scott Hairston on his miscue.
Tadahito Iguchi drove in the other Padres run but also left the game with a separated right shoulder for San Diego, which has won two straight following a three-game skid. Iguchi will likely land on the disabled list due to the injury.
David Wright drove in the lone run for New York, which lost for only the third time in its last 10 games overall. Jose Reyes went 2-for-3 with a run scored and two stolen bases, running his club record of reaching base for a leadoff hitter to 36 straight games.
Reyes is a career .269 hitter (7-for-26) against Wolf with two homers and three RBI, though Wright is batting only .133 (2-for-15) against him.
San Diego won four of six versus New York last year, taking two of three at home.