Mon Mar 31 19:59:17 2008

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Santana era begins with a bang as Mets slam Marlins

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Miami, FL (Sports Network) - Johan Santana's debut in a New York Mets uniform was a successful one as he gave up just two runs to help the Mets to a 7-2 win over the Florida Marlins in the season-opener for both teams at Dolphin Stadium.

Santana (1-0), who New York acquired in an off-season trade with Minnesota for four young prospects, was charged with just the two runs along with three hits and two walks while striking out eight in seven innings of work.

David Wright hit a three-run double in the fourth inning while Jose Reyes finished the game 2-for-4 with a run scored and a run batted in for the Mets, who are looking to put behind last season's late collapse as the team dropped 12 of their last 17 games and lost the NL East to the Philadelphia Phillies on the last day of the season.

Josh Willingham hit a two-run home run, while Mark Hendrickson (0-1) was saddled with the loss after giving up six runs on seven hits in five innings of work for the Marlins, who finished last season with an NL East-worst 71-91 record.

Florida begins its season without two big pieces of last year's team. The cash-strapped club dealt third baseman Miguel Cabrera and starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis to Detroit in exchange for six players, including highly- regarded prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin.

It was a scoreless game to start the fourth inning, but the Mets took control of the contest with six runs in the frame.

Carlos Beltran led off the inning with a double and Carlos Delgado followed with a walk. Angel Pagan scored Beltran with a double to left and Ryan Church plated Delgado with a single. After the next two batters recorded outs, Reyes kept the inning alive with an RBI single. Luis Castillo worked a walk to load the bases, and Wright cleared the bags with a double to left-center for a 6-0 lead.

Santana had retired the first nine batters he faced, but Hanley Ramirez worked a leadoff walk in the fourth and three batters later Willingham belted the first pitch he saw into the left field stands to make it a 6-2 game.

Florida had runners at first and second with one out in the fifth, but Santana got Jason Wood and Ramirez to strike out and end the threat.

Wright punched a one-out double to right in the seventh, but he was caught stealing and Beltran struck out to end the frame.

New York padded its lead in the ninth as Marlon Anderson scored on a throwing error from Matt Treanor to make it a 7-2 game.

Aaron Heilman retired the Marlins in order in the ninth to close out the contest.

Game Notes

New York is 30-17 on Opening Day while Florida fell to 8-8...Santana threw 100 pitches, 68 for strikes...The Mets and Marlins meet again on Tuesday with Pedro Martinez starting on the mound for New York and Rick Vanden Hurk toeing the rubber for Florida...Attendance was 38,308.