Johan The Salvager: Mets 5, Padres 1

The Mets won for just the second time in their last eight games as they salvaged the final game of their four-game series with the NL West basement-dwelling Padres. Santana went eight solid innings, allowing just a run on five hits while walking two and striking out four. He had a 9.2% swinging strike rate, a bit off his 11.2% season mark. He left a 5-1 lead in the lately-not-so-capable hands of Francisco Rodriguez, who allowed just one baserunner and managed to keep the Padres off the scoreboard entirely in his inning of work.

Santana was the story offensively, too, as he went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored, and was the team leader in WPA as both a pitcher and batter, which has seldom happened since we started tracking these things. Given the everyday lineup the Mets trot out there it may take a pitcher to step up and do some hitting if the Mets are going to win much the rest of the way. Santana got some help from the rest of the offense today, as everyone, excepting David Wright and Cory Sullivan, reached base at least once. Anderson Hernandez, making his first start since rejoining the Mets, went 2-for-3 with a walk to follow up his pinch-walk from Saturday night. His .319 on-base percentage is better than that of Sullivan, Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francoeur, and Omir Santos. With the exception of Santos, all of those guys play offense-heavy positions. This is why the Mets are about as close to the #1 overall pick as they are to making the playoffs.

The Mets head to Phoenix as Mike Pelfrey takes on Doug Davis on Monday night, a 9:40pm start at Chase Field.

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Gaslamp Ball Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Johan Santana (pitcher), +41.3% WPA, Johan Santana (batter), +16.4% WPA
Big losers: Cory Sullivan, -10.3% WPA, David Wright, -8.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Santana RBI single in sixth, +12.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Headley RBI single in sixth, -5.2% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +43.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: +6.7% WPA
GWRBI!: Johan Santana

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by KeithsMoustache; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.