The Mets still have some heavy lifting to do to make the playoffs, but they appear to have righted the ship after Brian Schneider and Johan Santanapowered them to a 7-2 win over the Nationals on Thursday. The laugher salvaged a split of the four-game set, kept the Amazin’s a half-game behind the Phillies in the NL East and extended their wild-card lead over the Brewers to 1 1/2 games after Milwakee’s choke-job loss to the Cubs. Colleague Mike Vaccaro writes that the Mets are getting their money’s worth from Santana.

In the notebook, Jerry Manuel comments on Aaron Heilmanaren’t exactly a vote of confidence. There are also items on John Maine, Argenis Reyes, Luis Castillo and Met roster moves.