After last night’s utter collapse against the Phillies, it’s fair to wonder if we’ll ever see Johan Santana (pictured) throw a complete game in a Mets uniform. Last night against the Phillies seemed to be the ideal setup for the Mets ace to be sent out for the ninth. Billy Wagner was unavailable and Santana’s pitch count was 105 after an eighth that he looked good in.

Jerry Manuel pulled him after eight, though, and Santana did not fight it.

After the game, Manuel was asked if we can expect to ever see Santana go nine.

“That’s a good question,” Manuel said. “But I think, if you look back at his history, there have been very few times he’s been over 100 pitches. And I think, for the most part, we have used up that allotment already. So that’s not something that he’s familiar with. If he’s not accustomed to it, I don’t think we should run the risk of that.”

A strange answer that surely will be revisited today. I did go back and look at Santana’s stats to see how many times he threw 100 pitches or more and what his record was in those games. Here’s a look

2000: 2 (0-1)

2001: 0

2002: 4 (3-1)

2003: 9 (7-1)

2004: 22 (15-5)

2005: 20 (10-2)

2006: 20 (12-4)

2007: 20 (6-10)

2008: 14 (6-4)

So it seems 20 would be the target number for times to allow him to go beyond 100 pitches. He’s done it 14 times this season and probably has about 12 starts left, meaning he could go long in about half of them.

His last complete game came June 19, 2007, coincidentally at Shea Stadium in a 9-0 Twins victory over the Mets. He has six career complete games, three coming in 2005.

The bottom line is the bullpen should have protected a three-run lead in the ninth but it would have been nice to see Santana fight his way into that ninth inning. Manuel said his decision was made, but you wonder if Santana had argued what the manager would have done.