Mets Shut Out Dodgers Again; Johan Santana Goes 8

Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey are proving to be quite a one-two punch. A day after Dickey threw eight innings in a shutout of the Dodgers, Santana followed suit with eight scoreless innings of his own as the Mets shut out the Dodgers again.

Ike Davis led off the second inning with a double off the wall in right-center. He moved to third on a fly out and scored on a Daniel Murphy sacrifice fly to give the Mets the 1-0 lead.

The Mets scored their second run in similar fashion. Murphy doubled to lead off the fifth, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a sac fly by Josh Thole.

Andres Torres made two stupid mistakes on the basepaths. In the first inning he was doubled off first on a simple fly out to right. And in the third he was thrown out by the catcher when he strayed too far off of first base. You can’t just give away outs like that.

Torres made up for those mistakes in the sixth. He led off the inning with a single, stole second and moved to third on a wild throw from the catcher. Wright was intentionally walked and Davis hit a long three-run home run to center field to extend the lead to 5-0. The surging Davis is now tied for the team lead in homers with 11.

Santana allowed just three hits in the game — one in the first inning and two in the eighth, his last inning. He struck out three and walked two and is now 6-4 with a 2.76 ERA.

The Mets win their fourth straight, 5-0. They are now seven games over .500 and two and a half games out of first in the NL East.