Santana Delivers for the Mets, SNY

Johan Santana made his Mets debut yesterday during the season opener in Florida. Santana went seven innings, giving up only two runs, and striking out eight, a fairly dominant performance.

How is this relevant to television you ask? Well, yesterday’s game was the highest rated season opener in Mets history on a regional sports network (Mets games have aired on MSG and Fox Sports Net, before making the jump to SNY, which was founded in 2006 by The Mets.)

The game had a 4.4 household rating, reaching 407,000 viewers in the New York region. The game was also the highest rated weekday afternoon game in team history, the only daytime game garnering a higher rating being last season’s Labor Day game, which featured the return of Pedro Martinez to the mound after a looong stint on the DL.

As good as that is for the Mets, expect tonight’s (rescheduled) Yankees season opener on YES to crush it in the ratings. Not only do the Yanks have a larger fan base, but this will be the final home opener at Yankee Stadium before the team moves to the new, much more expensive Yankee Stadium² next door.