Santana has a good start

Santana Dazzles in Mets Debut; Torre Wins
Johan Santana wasted no time putting the National League on notice with a dominating opening day start for the New York Mets.

Joe Torre appears to have the Los Angeles Dodgers ready to make a run in the NL West this season.

Santana struck out eight and gave up three hits in seven innings, leading the New York Mets to a 7-2 win over the host Florida Marlins on Monday.

"Off to a good start," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "Santana was outstanding today. He was pounding the zone all day and I thought he threw even better than he looked, because he threw a lot of strikes and balls were kind of borderline that he didn't get. But he made pitches when he had to and it's nice to have the big horse start things for you."

Santana was traded to the Mets from Minnesota this winter and signed a $137.5 million, six-year contract. He dazzled Monday from beginning to end. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out Hanley Ramirez to begin the game and Matt Treanor to end his outing.

Brad Penny gave up four hits over 6 2-3 innings in his first opening day start, Jeff Kent hit a two-run homer off Barry Zito to cap a three-run first, and the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 5-0 Monday in Torre's first game wearing Dodger blue.

"It's just total excitement," Torre said, after a near-sleepless night.

Torre managed the Yankees to 12 straight postseason appearances, including four World Series championships before rejecting an offer to continue on the job last fall. He joined the Dodgers two weeks later.

"He's brought a big bucket of professionalism and accountability that, at this time, this team needs," Kent said of Torre. "That's a good thing."

In other NL games, it was: Arizona 4, Cincinnati 2; Milwaukee 4, Chicago Cubs 3, 10 innings; Washington 11, Philadelphia 6; San Diego 4, Houston 0; Pittsburgh 12, Atlanta 11; Colorado at St. Louis was postponed by rain.

Santana retired the first nine Marlins, then went 28 minutes without throwing a pitch while his teammates batted around in a six-run fourth inning against Mark Hendrickson (0-1). Ramirez drew a leadoff walk in the bottom half and, two outs later, Josh Willingham homered to left field.

Santana set down seven of the next nine batters, striking out five. When he walked off the field after the seventh, the decidedly pro-Mets crowd of 38,308 at Dolphin Stadium gave him a long cheer.

"He's one of the best," Randolph said. "It's a pleasure to watch him work."

David Wright and Carlos Beltran each doubled twice for the Mets. Jose Reyes added two hits for New York, which has won 30 of its past 39 openers.

Santana lost yesterday.

GO METS!

U guys are lucky to have Santana though!

santana has a good everything..........