CINCINNATI — What was a nightmare for the Mets last year played out like a dream on Opening Day.
Much to the relief of his players and his manager, GM Omar Minaya’s offseason overhaul of the bullpen couldn’t have worked any more perfectly than it did here yesterday in a 2-1 win over the Reds.
The new back-end trio of Sean Green, J.J. Putz and $37 million headliner Frankie Rodriguez turned the Mets’ frigid 2009 debut at Great American Ball Park into basically a six-inning affair by nonchalantly retiring 10 of the 11 hitters they faced.
For at least one drizzly afternoon, the dark days of Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis and Billy Wagner helping to blow a mind-numbing 29 saves last season seemed like a long, long time ago.
“Out of the gate, as advertised,” right fielder Ryan Church said of the Mets’ revamped bullpen. “It just shows that [once the Mets get to] the seventh, eighth, ninth innings, it’s over.”
The retooled relief corps was so good that it overshadowed a superb opening start by Johan Santana, who didn’t allow a hit for the first 3″ innings and gave up just three hits overall while picking up his second consecutive Opening Day win as a Met.
Santana departed after 5″innings and 99 pitches with seven strikeouts and four walks. Unlike last season, when the bullpen cost him a Cy Young Award by blowing seven of his leads, Santana and manager Jerry Manuel didn’t flinch when turning over the ball to K-Rod & Co. yesterday.
“They did a great job, and it was fun to watch,” Santana said of the bullpen. “If they’re able to do that throughout the whole season, we’re going to be in pretty good shape. Because these guys, they know how to get it done.”
The results of all that terrific pitching by the Amazin’s was historic, too. The three hits allowed were the fewest ever by a Mets opponent on Opening Day.
“That’s what they’re expecting from us,” said Rodriguez, who needed just 10 pitches (eight of them strikes) to work a perfect ninth for the save.
“That’s one of the reasons J.J. and I and Green came here for, to stop those things that happened last year and the year before.”
The Mets would need all the excellent pitching and key defensive plays they could get on a day their offense looked a lot like last season — stranding 12 runners.
Young left fielder Daniel Murphy, hitting out of the No. 2 spot, provided all the Mets’ offense with a solo homer off Reds starter Aaron Harang in the fifth and an RBI groundout in the sixth.
The Mets managed to make that puny offensive output stand up with a host of standout defensive feats, most notably Church’s highlight-reel double play in the second.
After Edwin Encarnacion walked to open the inning, Church made a sliding, bobbling grab of Ramon Hernandez’s sinking liner to right, then doubled off Encarnacion with a laser to first.
“Any time you have that kind of defense out there, it minimizes damage,” Manuel said. “If we can play good defense like that, it gives us a pretty good chance, because, offensively, we’re going to be fine.”
But as pleasing to the eyes as the defensive wizardry was yesterday, nothing looked better to the Mets than the back end of a bullpen that was calm, cool and firmly in control.
“It takes a lot of pressure off of everybody,” David Wright said. “You can give it to the bullpen and feel confident. A 2-1 lead? Bring those guys in. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come.”
The Mets’ fingers will be crossed.
bhubbuch@nypost.com
Mets 2 Reds 1
