With 134 pitches Friday night, Johan Santana did what no other pitcher in the New York Mets’ 51-year history was able to do: He tossed a no-hitter. The St. Louis Cardinals were the victims in the 8-0 win that meant as much to the ace lefthander as it did to his team.
Given the fact that the Mets were one of only two major league franchises never to have had a no-hitterâ€"the San Diego Padres still are on the clockâ€"it is tough to decide whether the accomplishment is bigger for Santana or the franchise.
The Mets have featured such aces as Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and David Cone, all of whom threw no-hitters elsewhere but never did so in a Mets uniform. In all, the team waited 8,019 games to make history.
Santana, meanwhile, just took another huge step toward NL Comeback Player of the Year honors. It is easy to forget that the two-time Cy Young Award winner’s career was in serious jeopardy following shoulder surgery in September of 2010. He didn’t throw a pitch in the majors last season and pitched only five innings at Class A during a rehab assignment. Neither Santana nor the Mets knew what to expect as he reported to spring training in February.
Game details: Box score | Play-by-play
But in 11 starts this season, Santana is now 3-2 with a 2.38 ERA. Earlier this season, he had an 11-strikeout outing, and he tossed a complete-game shutout against the San Diego Padres in his previous start.
What surgery was that again?
The defining moment in Friday’s no-hitter came in the eighth inning after Santana issued a two-out walk to Rafael Furcal. Mets manager Terry Collins raced to the mound, and the crowd wondered if he really would do it. Would Collins remove Santana from the game, thereby putting more importance on the remaining four months of the regular season (and the team’s postseason chances) than on the opportunity to make history?
Collins stuck with Santana, who induced a weak infield popup to retire former Met Carlos Beltran, who, incidentally, instant replay showed actually had a hit earlier in the game (it was ruled foul).
In a season already with filled with unexpected stressâ€"the Mets were supposed to finish a distant fifth in the NL East, after allâ€"this might have been the toughest call Collins has made. The team was up 8-0 and Santana was well over 100 pitches. He hadn’t thrown more than 108 pitches this season, and his career high was just 125 pitches in 2008.
But Santana shook off his manager, kept the ball and ran with it.
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