Behind Santana, Mets end skid

NEW YORK - The New York Mets needed a break, and Johan Santana's bat shattered just in time.
Santana sparked the Mets' offense with an unusual broken-bat infield single and struck out 10 in eight innings, leading New York to a much-needed 6-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs last night.
"It should count for two hits," said Santana, whose fifth-inning bouncer hit a piece of his cracked maple bat twice and set up New York's rally. "I was just lucky."
Jose Reyes had a three-run triple for his 200th hit of the season and David Wright drove in two runs with a clutch single for the Mets, who ended a three-game skid reminiscent of last season's epic collapse.
"That's one of the biggest wins of the season for us," Reyes said.
New York remained one game in front of Milwaukee, which beat Pittsburgh, 7-5, in the wild-card race and moved within 1 1/2 games of the NL East-leading Phillies.
New York acquired Santana (15-7) in the offseason for situations like last night, and the lefthander delivered a sharp performance. He allowed two runs and seven hits to improve to 8-0 with a 2.26 ERA in his last 16 starts.
"Every big game that we needed in Johan's turn [he] was filthy," manager Jerry Manuel said. "He stepped up. He stepped up big tonight."
Santana, glowering at plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after some close throws, tossed a career-high 125 pitches. "I didn't even know I had that many pitches, to be honest to you," Santana said. "All the intensity in the game and everything that we went through, I was just out there trying to help."
Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome both had two hits for Chicago, which secured home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs with its 9-5 victory over New York on Monday night.
The Cubs put two runners on in the ninth against Pedro Feliciano but Luis Ayala came in and got two outs for his ninth save.
Santana's wacky hit got the Mets back on track after they struggled for much of the game against Sean Marshall, who worked out of a jam in the first and retired 12 of 13 before running into trouble in the fifth.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella couldn't believe it. "Marshall did fine," he said. "The only problem is he hits the eighth hitter. Then Santana pulls a magic bat trick. I've never seen that before." *