Johan Santana No-Hitter Fills a Major Void for All Mets Fans

In the last 51 years, the world has witnessed plenty of changes. There have been 10 different American presidents, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the creation of the Internet and numerous other changes that have transformed the way that many of us have lived.

But throughout that time period, there was one constant that remained: The New York Mets had never thrown a no-hitter.

Sure, there have been plenty of close chances. Tom Seaver twice took a no-hitter into the ninth inning during his career but lost it. Dwight Gooden would have registered a no-no in 1984 against the Cubs if it weren't for a scorer's decision.

Altogether, there have been 35 one-hitters in Mets history. Some of them will be remembered for ages, such as Mike Hampton's one-hit shutout of the Giants in Game 4 of the 2000 NLDS. Others, such as Aaron Heilman's one-hitter early in the 2005 season, are not always remembered by fans.

What has made the Mets' futility to record 27 outs without a hit more frustrating is that they have been blessed with some incredible pitchers. Pitchers such as Seaver, Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, David Cone, Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez have all been Mets. Some of these hurlers have completed no-hitters with other teams, but none had ever done so with the Mets.

It was rather mysterious. For 45 years, the Mets had played their home games at Shea Stadium, which was one of the top pitchers parks in all of baseball due to its low elevation and large outfield. After moving to Citi Field in 2009, the Mets again had a large field, but that large field appeared to harm the Amazin's chances.

But tonight, 8,019 games of frustration finally came to an end. Johan Santana, who had just returned to the ballfield after missing a year due to shoulder surgery, swaggered to the mound in a game that had much more emphasis on the return of Carlos Beltran to the city that he played in for seven years than anything else.

Santana did well in the first two innings but was already at 41 pitches, which meant that he was not going to pitch too long because he had a predetermined pitch limit of 110.

Santana went through the third and fourth innings with 21 combined pitches. The Mets' offense also got on the board with a sacrifice fly from Lucas Duda and a triple from Daniel Murphy

With impending storms already either delaying games in Washington and Philadelphia, there was a good chance that Santana's efforts could have fallen short of an official no-hitter. Santana had now thrown five no-hit innings, but that would not be enough for an official no-hitter.

Despite a light rain and the pressures of being 12 long outs away from Mets immortality, Santana caught the first of two major breaks.

On the second pitch of the inning, Beltran ripped a shot down the left field line. Third base umpire Adrian Johnson ruled that the ball was foul. But a look at a replay clearly showed that Beltran's liner was indeed a fair ball that scraped the chalk several feet away from Johnson.

Beltran went on to ground out to move Santana closer to the no-hitter. Matt Holliday and Allen Craig were retired shortly afterward to end the inning.

The Mets tallied on three runs in the bottom of the inning on a monster home run from Duda.

After a quick out to start the seventh, Yadier Molina hit a Santana 88 mph fastball deep to left field. Initially it looked like it could one-hop off the wall, but Matt Baxter made one of the top catches of the season by catching the ball before crashing into the fence. According the MetsBlog, Baxter has a shoulder contusion from the play.

The Mets went on to extend the lead to 8-0 at the bottom of the inning, which clearly was enough for Santana to complete his winning bid.

The eighth inning saw Santana go over his pitch limit, though he did get two quick outs. After a walk to Rafael Furcal where he didn't get near the strike zone, Collins went out to talk to Santana, but it ended up being a discussion of whether he had enough to stay in the game.

Santana proved that he was well by retiring Beltran on a weak line-out to Murphy. The last time that a Mets pitcher had reached the ninth inning with a no-hitter was Seaver in 1975, but that long stretch was over with Santana needing three more outs to complete history.

Following an at-bat where he clearly did not want to hit, Santana took to the field to get those final three outs. Both Holliday and Craig were retired with soft line-outs, which left 2011 World Series MVP David Freese standing between Santana and history.

Freese took three straight balls, but Santana responded with two strikes. On his career-high 134th pitch of the night, Santana got Freese to whiff on a 78 mph change-up to complete the no-hitter and send the crowd of 27,069 into a frenzy.

Santana's final line is not pretty. He had five walks, which tied the total amount of free passes that he gave up in all of May. He also threw 57 balls to go with his 77 strikes.

But this is a defining moment for Santana in a Mets uniform. In his 99th career start, the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner will forever be remembered for throwing the first no-hitter in Mets history.

Considering the crazy road that Santana has been down with the Mets during the past five years, he deserves all praise that comes his way.

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