Crowd rattles Santana; Phils roll Mets

JAMIE MOYER HAS BEEN there and done that. And been there again and done that again. And the veteran lefthander says it shouldn't matter to the pitcher how long and how loud the paying customers yell, even if they make the whole stadium shake.

"It shouldn't be a problem," the 47-year-old reasoned. "Forty thousand-plus people don't have bats."

It sounds logical. But there was nothing logical about what happened in the bottom of the fourth inning last night at Citizens Bank Park when the Phillies jumped on Johan Santana for eight runs to overcome an early deficit and then cruise to an 11-5 win.

Maybe it was just one of those things. But it looked for all the world like Santana, one of the league's very best pitchers, melted down in the face of a verbal firestorm that started when Moyer stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.

All Santana had to do was retire the pitcher and he was out of the inning with the Mets still ahead by two runs. Except that he had just walked Carlos Ruiz on four pitches, undoubtedly working around him with the pitcher on deck, and when he went 2-0 to Moyer the fans smelled it.

Moyer fouled off a 3-2 pitch. Somehow, it got even louder. And when Santana walked Moyer to force in a run, the sellout crowd howled like feral animals.

It evoked unmistakable memories of Brett Myers' nine-pitch walk against CC Sabathia in Game 2 of the 2008 Division Series against Milwaukee, especially when Shane Victorino followed with a grand slam just as he did that memorable day.

For those of a certain age, it also recalled Game 3 of the 1977 National League Championship Series when Dodgers righthander Burt Hooton came unglued in the face of a firestorm of sound at the Vet.

"I was just trying to get on base," said Moyer, pointing out correctly that Myers fouled off several pitches before Sabathia walked him.

Victorino, however, felt the vibe. "I was definitely getting caught up in all that," he said. "It was pretty loud. That's the atmosphere this crowd has created. I guess you could say it was a déjà-vu situation."

He was reluctant, however, to apply a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the noise of the home partisans and the fact that Santana faced three more batters after the walk to Moyer . . . and gave up two homers and a single before being lifted.

"Did that have something to do with it? Maybe," he said. "There were 45,000 people screaming and yelling and maybe he got a little flustered. I don't know but maybe it got to him a little bit."

This much can be said with certainty: Santana had allowed just seven runs in 30 1/3 innings coming into play. Last night, he allowed 10 in 3 2/3 innings and eight in the Phillies' nine-run fourth alone.

"Just a rough night," Santana said. "I tried to command my fastball, but it was all over the place. It was one of those days where whatever I did, didn't work out."

The big win allowed the Phillies to take two out of three from the Mets after dropping three of their previous four series.

And just 2 nights after a dismal 9-1 loss to the Mets that had manager Charlie Manuel grumbling about his club's lack of spark, the Phillies seem to have at least temporarily righted the ship by scoring 21 runs in their last two games.

"It means a lot because we were just talking about something being missing," Victorino said. "But I never second-guessed this team."

They needed a big offensive night, too. Moyer gave up three runs in the top of the first and two more in the top of the fourth. Most nights, with Santana on the mound, that would have been enough for the Mets. But this clearly was different.

Manuel said Santana's velocity was down slightly from last season, but that's been the case all year. And in two of his previous starts, he allowed one run and in two others he shut out the opposing team. So that doesn't fully explain why he fell apart.

After Rod Barajas homered to give New York a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth, the Mets had only one of their last 18 batters reach base, a walk of Jason Bay by Chad Durbin in the eighth.

Moyer was asked if he ever expected to see Santana knocked around the way he was.

"I guess we're all human," he said.

Rightfielder Jayson Werth left the game in the eighth inning. "He had a little soreness in his hip or leg. He should be fine," Charlie Manuel said . . . The crowd of 45,439 was the Phillies' largest of the season and their 51st consecutive sellout . . . Reliever Danys Baez has a 4.00 earned run average in his first inning of work. When he goes beyond an inning, though, six of the seven batters he's faced have reached base and his ERA is 135.00. Manuel said he still thinks Baez can be a multiple-inning pitcher but that he's been used to pitching one inning at a time and needs to make the transition.