Tonight’s game is why the Mets traded for Johan Santana. He was brought here to win big games. He was brought here to counter the Phillies’ left-handed bats. He was brought here to win battles for first place. He was brought here to beat their rivals. Tonight’s game at Shea qualifies on all counts.

In Santana’s two games against Philadelphia this season, he’s pitched well. On April 18^th at Citizens Bank Park, he defeated the Phillies for his second win of the year. The Mets won 6-4, and he pitched seven innings, gave up four hits, struck out 10 and didn’t walk anybody. His other start in Philadelphia was the last series opener on July 4th. He pitched great, but ended up with a no-decision, when Duaner Sanchez gave up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. His line in that game: eight innings pitched, two runs, six hits, six strikeouts and, again, zero walks.

Last season, in the games Santana pitched against the two teams that finished ahead of Minnesota―Detroit and Cleveland―his record was a not-so-good 2-8. But the previous two years, he went a combined 11-4 against the closest teams to the Twins (the Tigers and White Sox in ’06 and the Sox and Indians in ’05).

So far this season, Santana’s been the designated hard-luck pitcher of the staff. He’s lost games by scores of 2-1, 3-2 (twice) and 3-1. And the bullpen has blown a number of potential wins for him. So while his record could well be in the neighborhood of 13-5, it now stands at 8-7. He’s eighth in the NL with a 3.10 ERA, ninth in innings pitched (130.2), 10^th in the league with a 1.22 WHIP and eighth in strikeouts with 116.

While those stats sound nice, sometimes the ace of the staff has to win. He may have to win 3-2, 2-1 or 1-0. But he has to win. In the July 4^th game against the Phillies, his pitching line looked good, but he had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning. Your ace should win a game like that. Sometimes calling yourself unlucky or leaving it up to someone else isn’t good enough. No matter how good anyone is, they can’t win every game (and can’t score runs by themselves), but when you are arguably the best pitcher in baseball (and being paid $16,984,216 this season), you are counted on to hold a 2-0 lead. It would be a psychological boost for the Phillies, with newly acquired Joe Blanton, to beat Santana. So Santana needs to be the ace tonight. That doesn’t just mean pitching well, but also winning the game. That’s what aces do.