Mets, Santana hope to continue mastery of Astros

Baseball Betting Lines

08/17/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Mets have enjoyed plenty of success in their recent meetings with the Houston Astros. Considering the way Johan Santana has pitched as of late, there seems to be a good chance that mastery will continue.

Santana takes the mound this evening as the Mets aim for a seventh straight victory over the Astros in the second test of this four-game series from Minute Maid Park.

After losing their first meeting with Houston last season, the Mets won the next five 2009 matchups between the teams and extended that streak with a 3-1 verdict on Monday. New York scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to prevail, with David Wright crossing the plate with the eventual winning run on a wild pitch by Astros closer Matt Lindstrom.

Wright and Carlos Beltran had back-to-back singles with one out in the ninth before Lindstrom (2-4) uncorked a pitch that got past catcher Jason Castro and enabled Wright to score from third. Jeff Francoeur then followed with a triple to left center that plated Beltran for a 3-1 Mets' lead.

Entering Monday's contest having gone just 5-for-44 in August, Wright collected three hits in four at-bats for the Mets. Beltran had a solo homer earlier in the night, while Pedro Feliciano (3-6) picked up the win by getting the final out of the eighth.

Hisanori Takahashi threw a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his first major league save and may get some additional opportunities to finish games in the near future, as the Mets revealed on Monday that closer Francisco Rodriguez will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb in the coming days. The four-time All-Star suffered the injury during a well- publicized fight with his girlfriend's father last week that earned him a two- game suspension by the team.

Jon Niese worked the first seven innings for New York and yielded just one run while striking out five in a no-decision.

"He economizes his pitches," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said of Niese. "He keeps the ball on the ground for the most part, keeps the ball in the park. He threw strikes. That's a good combination for a young pitcher."

Niese was matched by the Astros' Wandy Rodriguez, who held the Mets to a run on just four hits while fanning six in a seven-inning stint of his own.

Houston had a three-game win streak snapped with Monday's result, but continued to get hot hitting from Chris Johnson in the loss. The rookie third baseman finished 2-for-3 and knocked in the team's only run with a six-inning double, and is batting a scorching .384 with six homers and 33 RBI since returning from the minors in late June.

Chris Johnson went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Astros, who had a three-game win streak snapped. Wandy Rodriguez matched Niese, allowing one run, four hits and three walks in seven innings, but Matt Lindstrom (2-4) took the loss for allowing two runs in the ninth.

Johnson will be taking his first-ever swings against Santana, who hasn't given up a single run in winning his last two assignments. In his most recent outing, the two-time American League Cy Young Award honoree scattered four hits and struck out 10 Colorado hitters in a complete-game shutout of the Rockies last Thursday.

Santana was just about as good five days earlier, firing 7 1/3 scoreless innings to best Philadelphia on August 7. That effort followed an 11-strikeout performance at Atlanta in which the standout lefty was reached for four runs in seven innings to suffer his most recent loss.

The 31-year-old has held the opposition to one run or less in seven of his last nine starts and sports a strong 2.89 earned run average for the season. Santana is 2-1 with a 2.52 ERA in four career appearances (three starts) against the Astros, although he was tagged for five runs and 12 hits over 6 2/3 innings in a loss at Minute Maid Park last season.

Santana will be opposed tonight by one-time Met Nelson Figueroa, with the journeyman hurler set to make his first start as an Astro. The right-hander has pitched eight times in relief since being claimed by Houston off waivers on July 21 and has gone 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA in 11 1/3 innings during that span.

Prior to being picked up by the Astros, Figueroa had spent the season shuffling between Philadelphia and the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley. He appeared in 13 games with one start for the Phils and was 2-1 with a 3.46 ERA.

Figueroa was a member of the Mets for the 2008 and 2009 campaigns and went 3-8 with a 4.09 ERA in 16 games, 10 of which were starts, last season. He had been waived by the club just prior to the start of this year's regular season.

The 36-year-old has faced his former team six times previously, once as a starter, and has no record and a 3.78 ERA against New York. Figueroa gave up three runs in two innings over a pair of relief stints versus the Mets while with the Phillies back in May.