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It is July 22, 2038 and Juan Santiago of the New York Mets is approaching the biggest start of his career. He is facing the Atlanta Braves with both teams tied for first place in the revamped National League Atlantic Division. Santiago has been sharp all year, but only sports a 10-7 record to go along with his sparkling 2.46 ERA.

Talk shows and bloggers are reminiscing on the game 30 years earlier when Johan Santana was in a similar circumstance and came through with flying colors. That game 30 years prior saw Santana, when about to be removed from the game against the Philadelphia Phillies, demanded the ball in the 9^th from Met manager Jerry Manuel and proceeded to complete the game, winning that game 5-2.

That game propelled those Mets into first place, a position they would not relinquish the balance of the season. Those 2008 Mets, riding the wave that was Santana, won the NL East, beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS before losing the World Series in 7 games to the Anaheim Angels. Santana won games 3 and 6 in the 2008 World Series. In the decisive Game 7 of the NLCS, Santana out-dueled fellow ace CC Sabathia 2-1 in another complete game masterpiece.

Being interviewed to have his uniform number retired by the Mets on the 30 year anniversary of that Phillies game, the 59 year old Met Hall of Famer Santana said, "When I demanded to Jerry, and was allowed to pitch that 9^th inning against the Phillies, the entire season turned around for me." And the record backs up that statement as Santana went 8-1 down the stretch in 2008, forever exorcising the demons from the Mets collapse a year earlier.

Back to reality. Of course that game in 2008 did not happen the way it should have and, who knows, maybe a pitcher names Juan Santiago will be in a big game for the New York Mets during the 2038 season. Sometimes during the long baseball season, there are regular season games that can be construed as "statement games." Last night's series opening game against the Phillies is one such game.

During the winter of 2007, Omar Minaya made a great move in getting Santana for the Mets for four prospects. Santana would be the ace of the Mets staff, despite having 15 game winners John Maine and Oliver Perez and first ballot HOFer Pedro Martinez penciled in to the starting rotation. After the late season 2007 collapse where the Mets lost 7 straight games to the Phillies, the Mets were desperately in need of a stopper for games such as last night's.

What made the game even more important was that the Phillies were starting Joe Blanton, recently acquired from the Oakland A's, to counter the former American League pitchers such as Santana, Sabathia (Brewers) and Rich Harden (Cubs) now plying their trade in the National League. Both are two newly acquired starting pitchers gunning for first place.

Most analysts are stating that Santana did his job by going 8 strong innings. I disagree. Santana did not complete the job.

Knowing that closer Billy Wagner was unavailable, Santana needed to become his own closer, finishing a game that needed to be finished in a classic ace style. There is no way that Santana should have let Jerry Manuel take the ball from him in this type of meaningful game.

It would not be the first time Santana pulled himself out of a meaningful game.

It was October 9, 2004 and the Minnesota Twins were down 2 games to 1 against the New York Yankees in the best of 5 ALDS. Santana dominated the Yankees in Game 1, tossing 7 scoreless innings. Then in Game 4, with the Twins (and Santana) leading the game 4-1, Santana removed himself after five innings and only 87 pitches. The Yankees stormed back and won the game, and the series. Granted, Santana was working on only 3 days rest, but this was a deciding game in the playoffs. An ace pitcher does not pull out of a game of this magnitude.

But, Johan Santana is not a staff ace. Staff ace's DO NOT come out of big time games.

Former Twins pitcher Jack Morris was an ace and, as the ace of the 1991 Minnesota Twins, Morris went 10 innings in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series beating the Atlanta Braves 1-0. In the 9^th inning, manager Tom Kelly went to the mound to ask Morris for the ball. Morris told Kelly in straightforward terminology that he was not coming out of that game. It was Morris' to win or lose.

Santana should have had the same demeanor last night. In a post game interview, Santana said he would never disagree with a manager's decision to pull him out of a game. Why not? It would have been great to see Santana grab his bat in the bottom of the 8^th and go up to hit, or if Johan wanted to avoid a SportsCenter spectacle, take Manuel down the hallway and say, "I want the ball in the 9^th inning."

Maybe the Mets obtained the wrong former Cy Young winning lefty pitcher. I could not imagine CC Sabathia ever asking out of a game of that magnitude. In fact, Sabathia has turned in two complete games for the Milwaukee Brewers and is 3-0 in his 3 starts since being traded from Cleveland. He threw 122 pitches in his first complete game.

There is an old axiom in sports which states "you are what your record says you are." Johan Santana is only 8-7 this season. It doesn't matter what your ERA or WHIP is, what your run support is or how many games the bullpen has blown for you. The idea now is to win games - period. Down the stretch in a playoff race, the game changes to where pitch counts are thrown out of the window and bulldogs such as Jack Morris, Orel Hershiser and CC Sabathia rule the pitcher's mound.

Bulldogs win big games, poodles such as Johan Santana lose them, check that, get no-decisioned in them.