Santana, Mets Honor Late Gary Carter, Outpitch Braves for 1-0 Win

Opening day at Citi field was far from a scoring spree. The Mets and Braves battled in a serious pitchers' duel, in which the Mets would come away with a 1-0 victory.

The Mets continued their opening day success as a club, improving to 33-10 in the last 43 years on Opening Day.

The day began as a reminiscent one.

The family of the late Gary Carter was on hand to honor the former Met great in front of a record Citi Field crowd of 42,080. Before the opening pitch, the Mets paid homage to the former catcher by unveiling a black home plate design with Carter's number and nickname "Kid" on the left-center field wall.

After the ceremony, from the opening pitch, the fate of the outcome would remain on the pitcher's mound.

New York Mets ace Johan Santana made his first start in 19 months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his throwing shoulder.

Through four innings, it looked as though Santana hadn't missed a beat. While his velocity never reached the 90's, he consistently threw effectively in the upper 80's. He was able to get the Braves to swing and miss a lot early, and that helped maintain a reasonable pitch count.

However, the fifth inning became trouble for Santana.

After retiring 12 in a row, he threw an inning high 27 pitches, walking pitcher Tommy Hanson to load the bases for lead off hitter Michael Bourn. Riding on the adrenaline of his first start in almost two years, Santana persevered and got Bourn to ground the ball back to him to get out of the jam.

This would be Santana's final inning, as he was pinch hit for in the bottom of the fifth for Mike Baxter in an effort to put Santana in line for the win. However, with a runner in scoring position Baxter would strike out looking on three pitches.

Santana finished the day allowing two hits, two walks and struck out five.

Braves starting pitcher Tommy Hanson also was very effective early. Hanson kept his pitch count down by throwing a lot of good breaking pitches, forcing the Met hitters to chase balls out of the strike zone. The Mets didn't work the count early in the game and it played in Hanson's favor.

However, things began to unravel for what would be Hanson's final inning in the 6th. After walking lead-off hitter Andres Torres, Daniel Murphy would single to right for his second hit of the day and move Torres to third. With runners on the corners, David Wright would produce the only run of the day, an RBI single to left to score Torres. Wright went 2-3 on the day.

From there, the Mets bullpen took over and three of their new pitchers shined in relief.

Ramon Ramirez would relieve Santana and pitch a scoreless 6th inning. He came out to start the 7th, but after Braves rookie shortstop Tyler Pastornicky tripled to right-center, Tim Byrdak came in to finish the job.

Byrdak would record the final two outs of the inning by striking out pinch hitter Jose Constanza and center fielder Michael Bourn.

The Mets would get a lead off single from Josh Thole, his second hit of the day, to start the bottom of the 7th, but after a failed bunt attempt by Ruben Tejada, pinch hitter Justin Turner would hit into an inning end double play.

There wouldn't be any more scoring opportunities for the Braves the rest of the way. The next Met to make his debut would be the 6'11" giant Jon Rauch, who moved quickly in putting the Braves down in order.

After the Mets came up short on a threat to score in the bottom of the 8th, new closer Frank Francisco came in to seal the deal. He set the Braves down 1-2-3 in the ninth, striking out Jason Heyward to end the game.

It was a nice, gritty win for the Mets and great way to honor the great Gary Carter. While the offense looked terrible at times, the pitching was phenomenal on Opening Day. Ramon Ramirez got the win (1-0), and the Mets will resume play on Saturday afternoon when R.A. Dickey takes the mound to face Jair Jurrjens.

Game Notes:

On the Tyler Pastornicky triple in the 7th, Mets center fielder Andres Torres came up lame with a calf injury. His second calf strain in two weeks, he would leave the game and is expected to be placed on the 15-day DL.