Where have the strikeouts gone, Johan Santana?

With only three strikeouts in yesterday’s win, Johan Santana has only struck out 14 batters over his last five starts, spanning over 30 innings.

Here’s a chart of Santana’s strikeouts by starts… Look how far his strikeouts per nine innings has fallen for the month of June… The problem seems to be that Santana just isn’t throwing as many strikes swinging lately.  Strangely, though, his strikes looking have gone up over his last two starts.  Take a look… It seems to just be a strange anomaly, I would guess.  With the increased strikes looking, one might assume an increased strikeout count.  Not so, lately.

What gives, Johan?

Don’t get me wrong: In no way am I complaining.  Outside of the debacle at Yankee Stadium a few weeks ago, Santana has been just as good as we all expected from him. 

It’s just strange to see his strikeouts dip so low after he was seemingly mowing them down in the beginning of the year.