Johan Santana, Endy Chavez and Willie Randolph spoke with the media after last nights extra inning 5-4 Mets win over the Pirates at Shea. First up Johan,

Johan Santana was asked about the home runs he surrendered:

“The first guy (Nate McLouth) we had some scouting reports that he takes a few pitches (he jumped on the first pitch) but what can you do I didn’t execute. Home runs are part of the game. They (the Pirates) battled, they fouled off a lot of pitches. The most important part is we, as a team got the win.”

Asked if he heard the cheers when he was removed from the game:

“Yes, I did, I guess they appreciated what I did tonight and that’s always good. But the thing is you always gotta have that support, day in and day out because they (the fans) are big part of what we do here. The bad days and the good days. If they are always out there supporting us then you feel more comfortable. That goes for everybody, that’s the way it is. But we understand they are very demanding fans in this city and they always want to win and there’s nothing wrong with that. But at the same time we are human beings we’re gonna make mistakes, sometimes we’re not gonna have a good day but it’s all how you bounce back and hopefully the results will be very positive for the whole team.”

Endy Chavez, who had three hits spoke with WFAN’s Eddie Coleman:

“I’m glad I got three hits, I feel good at the plate. It helps me to be in there, it keeps me sharp, i’ve seen a lot of pitches and that helps a lot… I think he (Santana) did a pretty good job, I think when he was a little wild the umpire was pretty tough but he’s a tough pitcher and he hung in there for us and he did a pretty good job.”

Willie Randolph:

Asked about David Wright’s game winning hit and his struggles of late:

“When he does what he did in that situation (walk off hit) he’s pretty effective, every once in awhile he starts pulling off the ball and gets out of rhythm. He’s one of the best on the team going the other way, he had a great approach right there and got a big hit for us.”

About Jose Reyes getting on base last night:

“Any time you have your lead-off man on base six times you gotta score more runs. We left too many runners on tonight. We have to make sure we do a better job of situational hitting and just putting the ball in play in big spots. We had a chance when we were up 4-2 to put them away. We have to do a better job of execution, it takes a lot of pressure off your bullpen. If you can add on those extra runs it really frees up your bullpen.”

On Santana:

“I thought he threw the ball great. He had like forty foul balls, something like that. He was just nasty tonight. They kept battling, they kept fighting. He made a couple of mistakes but he deserved to win the game but we didn’t pick up those ducks which made it tough.”

Asked what Santana said when Willie went to the mound before he hit Xavier Nady:

“He said he wanted him. I just wanted to go out and see how he was feeling. I’m trying to get to know him a little bit. I need to comunicate with him, find out how he feels. I need him to be honest with me. But as soon as I got out there he said “no I got this guy, I want this guy” that one ball just kind of got away from him, kinda sailed. He’s a competitor, he felt strong it was cool out so, I’m gonna trust him when he tells me he wants to compete. He still one of the best.”

All the Santana quotes were great. When he was asked about the fans reaction towards him he spoke about their reaction but related it to the team, which I loved. When Willie spoke about about Santana saying “I got this guy”, “I want this guy” the results don’t even matter, the fact that we are finding out that Santana has some bulldog in him is fantastic. He battled through some foul balls and the elements last night. So far there is nothing not to like about our ace.