"24 outs to go!"
Friday night, June 1st, 2012 was no different. Johan Santana retired the Cardinals 1-2-3 in the top of the first. The no-hitter watch was on again.
It might seem odd that I would regularly start a no-hitter watch after one inning of no-hit ball. It might seem odd, that is, unless you know the history of the Mets and no-hitters.
When Johan Santana strode to the mound on Friday night, the Mets had still never had a no-hitter in their 50-year history. Every other franchise in baseball, except the Padres ( who have not existed as long as the Mets ), have had at least one no-hitter in their history. This includes the Rays ( started in 1998 ), the Diamondbacks ( 2 no-hitters since starting in 1998 ), the Rockies ( started in 1993 ) and the Marlins ( 4 no-hitters since starting in 1993 ). With the exception of the Mets and Padres, no baseball franchise had gone as many as 5000 games into their franchise history without having at least one no-hitter. Going into the Friday night's game, the Mets had gone 8019 games without a no-hitter.
What made this no-hitter drought particularly frustrating and perplexing is that the Mets have always had great pitching. Former Cy Young Award winners like Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Bret Saberhagen, and Frank Viola each spent a few years pitching for the Mets. Very good pitchers like Ron Darling, Jerry Koosman, Al Leiter, Jon Matlack, Mike Hampton, Sid Fernandez, Rick Reed, and Bobby Ojeda all helped the Mets win pennants and World Series, but failed to throw no-hitters while with the Mets ( Note: I was at Shea Stadium during a game in which Rick Reed retired the first 19 hitters in a row. He then gave up a walk, hit, and a homer, and the Mets lost the game. ). Most significantly, Mets pitchers Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan ( Hall of Famers ), Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Mike Scott ( Cy Young Award winners ) and Hideo Nomo ( Rookie of the Year Winner ( before joining the Mets )) each pitched no-hitters ( in Ryan's case, a record 7 ) after being traded away from the Mets.
The most recent name added to the list of former Mets with no-hitters was Phil Humber. Humber was the Mets first round draft pick back in 2004. Mets fans had high hopes for Humber, but he never panned out. He was traded away from the Mets before 2008 season started, then bounced around the league a fews years before landing with the Chicago White Sox. This April, he pitched a Perfect Game. When I read the story about his perfect game on ESPN, I noticed that somebody had written the following in the comments section under the story.
"How to pitch a no-hitter:
Step 1: Pitch for the Mets
Step 2: Pitch for any other team."
However, it's worth noting the trade that sent Phil Humber ( and a few other players ) away from the Mets in 2008, brought back ....
Johan Santana.
Back in 2008, Santana was a fine candidate to break the Mets no-hitter drought. He had won the Cy Young award in 2004 and 2006, and was widely considered to be the best pitcher in baseball. He didn't disappoint in 2008, leading the National League in ERA, setting a career high in innings pitched, and using his 95 mph fastball and devastating change-up to strike out 206 batters.
However, 2012 is a long way from 2008. Johan had knee surgery after the 2008 season. His 2009 season was ended by elbow surgery to remove bone chips, and his 2010 ended with surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. He didn't pitch at all in the 2011 season, and many wondered if he'd ever pitch again.
To Johan's credit, after a year-and-a-half of hard work, he managed to get himself ready in time for the start of the 2012 season. He even started on Opening Day. However, it was clear that he was a shell of his former self. His fastball was being clocked at about 88 mph ( it might hit 90 mph every once in a while, but certainly no faster than that ), and coming off the arm surgery, you knew that the Mets would rarely let him throw more than 100 pitches in a game in 2012.
Thus, while I would hope for a no-hitter at the start of every Mets game, I didn't really think that Johan was a realistic candidate anymore. My hope rested more with young pitcher Jonathon Niese, and knuckleballer R. A. Dickey. Neise had lost a no hitter in the 7th inning earlier this year, and Dickey had lost one in the 6th a few weeks earlier. Back in 2010, Dickey had pitched a one-hitter in which the only hit was a single by the opposing pitcher in the 6th inning ( The Mets have had 35 one-hitters. I don't know the odds of having that many one-hitters without a single no-hitter, but the odds must be ridiculous. ).
So, I didn't think a Johan no-hitter was really possible, until he threw a complete game shutout on May 26, 2012. In that game he only threw 96 pitches. Surely, if he could pitch a shutout in only 96 pitchers, it was a least possible that he could throw a no-hitter in about 100 pitches or so.
Possible of course, but not likely. Especially not on Friday night. Back on May 26th, Johan was pitching against the last place Padres. On Friday night, he was facing the defending World Champion Cardinals, the best-hitting team in the National League.
In additional to the Cardinals formidable lineup, there was a lot of bad Mets history in the middle of the field for the Cardinals that night. The Cardinals had Adam Wainwright pitching, Yadier Molina catching, and Carlos Beltran playing centerfield. Back in 2006, Carlos Beltran was the Mets best player. They had the best record in the National League, and were playing the Cardinals in National Championship series. The Mets were heavy favorites entering the series, but the series wound up going to a decisive game 7 at Shea Stadium. The game was tied late, but I never really believed the Mets were going to lose until Yadier Molina ( who hit only 6 regular season homers in the regular season ) launched a two-run homer in the top of the 9th inning to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. The Mets rallied in the bottom the 9th, and Carlos Beltran found himself batting against Adam Wainwright with the bases loaded and 2 outs in a 3-1 game. As every Mets fan knows, Beltran wound up striking out looking, and things have never been quite the same for the Mets. They blew a 7-game lead with 17 games to play to miss the playoffs in 2007, had a similar collapse in 2008, and then suffered through injury-plagued seasons in 2009, 2010, and 2011, during which Bernie Madoff related financial woes led the team to get rid of most of their best players ( including Beltran last year ).
Before this season, I told Ruth that the Mets would not just be awful this year, but would be "God-awful". I really expected them to lose at least 100 games this year, but something special has been happening under manager Terry Collins this year - something that I've started to call "Collinsanity".
Collinsanity would continue on Friday night.
To be honest, due to Johan's shutout in his previous start, I started think about a potential no-hitter while Johan was pitching to his first batter of the game. When it took him 7 pitches to get the lead-off batter out, I was already worrying that his pitch count was going to be too high to pitch a no-hitter. I was even more worried after it took Johan 41 pitches to get through 2 no-hit innings. 20 pitches an inning just wasn't going to cut it if Johan was going to break the no-hitter curse that night.
Neither team had gotten a hit yet when the Mets came to bat in the bottom of the 4th. The Mets got a hit to lead off the inning and managed to plate 2 runs before the inning was over. I let out a sigh of relief at that point, because one of my recurring nightmares regarding Mets no-hitters ( I don't literally have nightmares about it, but I've thought about it a lot ) is that a Mets pitcher will have a no-hitter through 9 innings, but the Mets will fail to score.
Still, I really didn't like Johan's chances to throw a no-hitter that night. Johan's didn't have particularly great stuff that night, his pitch count was rising rapidly, and it was starting to rain lightly at the ballpark. If there was any kind of rain delay, there was no way the Mets were going to let Johan continue the game after a rain delay. I didn't really hold out any hope that this game would be THE GAME until something happened at the top of the 6th.
Carlos Beltran led off the 6th inning and hit a hard line-drive down the third base line. For a split second, I thought that the no-hit attempt was over, but the ump called it foul. Then I got a look at a replay. The replay showed that the ball had hit the outside part of the foul line. The ball should have been called fair. The Mets had caught a break. After all these years of bad breaks, the Mets had finally caught a break. Perhaps this night would be the night.
My doubts subsided more in the 7th inning. With one out in the 7th, Johan's no-hitter was still alive when Yadier Molina stepped to the plate. He had already broken the hearts of all Mets fans 6 years ago. How cruel would it be if he broke our hearts again? Johan falls behind Molina 3-1, and on the 5th pitch, Molina rips a deep line-drive to left. I don't immediately think the no-hitter is over, but it's going to take a nice defensive play to get this out, and the Mets left fielder this night is Mike Baxter.
Mike Baxter is a 27-year-old who has spent most of his career in the minors. He's got a pretty decent bat, but there is usually only one reason why 27-year olds with decent bats don't get much time in the Major Leagues. Mike Baxter isn't exactly what you'd call a slick fielder.
The line drive flies towards the fence, and Baxter runs awkwardly back and to his left. He desperately throws out his left hand at the last possible second, the ball hits the glove, and he hits the wall HARD. Baxter goes down, and stays down, but holds on the ball. 2 outs! 7 outs to go.
Eventually Baxter gets up and is helped off the field by the trainers. He appears to be in quite a bit of pain. It's later revealed that the collision displaced his right collarbone and fractured rib cage cartilage. He won't be able to play again for about 6 weeks, but I'm sure he thinks it was worth it. Baxter grew up in Queens as a Mets fan. A Mets fan from Queens sacrifices his body making a play to preserve a no-hitter. You couldn't make this stuff up.
Johan gets the last out of the 7th, the rain has long stopped, and now even the most pessimistic Mets fan knows that things are starting to get serious. However, Johan's already thrown 107 pitches. Can he possibly get through the next 2 innings without permanently damaging his arm? Perhaps not, but it doesn't matter at this point. Unless Johan gives up a hit, there is no way he's going to come out of this game.
Johan hasn't had great stuff tonight, and tendons and ligaments just might be fraying in his left elbow and shoulder by now, but heck, with only 6 outs to go, all you really need to do is just throw it over the plate and hope to get lucky. Heck, if you give *me* enough tries ( granted, it might take a few thousand tries ), I even think I could get 6 outs in a row in a major league game. Even if guys are hammering each pitch you throw, there always a chance that they'll hit lines drives right at people. Johan's not pitching great at this point, but all he needs is a little bit of luck. Can the Mets actually get a little bit of luck in a no-hitter attempt?
I turn to my wife and tell her that I won't be upset if Johan loses the no-hitter, unless he gets as far as 2 outs in the 9th. I've been burned too many times by Mets no-hitter attempts. I'm not going to let myself get emotionally invested in this until there's only one out to go.
Johan has a few close calls ( a few bloops, and a few near collisions between Mets fielders ), but the next thing you know, we've gotten to 2 outs in the 9th. By now, Johan has thrown 128 pitches, 3 more than he's ever thrown in a game before. The batter is 2011 World Series MVP David Freese. Johan quickly falls behind 3-0. I decide that I would rather walk Freese than give him a fastball in the strike zone on 3-0. Johan throws a 3-0 fastball in the strike zone, Freeze takes it, and I breathe a sigh of relief. It's about then that I realize that Yadier Molina is waiting on deck. Considering what Molina's done to the Mets in the past, and considering how hard Molina hit the ball his last time up, I really don't want Molina coming up with a no-hitter on the line. Still, I don't want Johan to give Freese an easy pitch to hit in this at-bat. Crap, this is getting hard to watch. I honestly don't remember what kind of pitch Johan threw next, but I do remember that Freese pounded it into the ground toward third base. For a split second I thought it was going to be ground out to end the game, but the ball quickly rolls foul. 3-2. Now we're one strike away. At this point, I'm thinking of just one thing.
A change-up.
"Change-up!"
"Throw him the change-up, Johan!"
Of course, he can't hear me ( heck these games on TV are on about a 7 second delay, so he's probably already thrown the pitch ), but he just HAS to throw his change-up here. The Mets are up 8-0, so they're in no danger of losing the game if Johan walks a few people this inning. You simply cannot give in to the batter in a situation like this with a no-hitter on the line. Molina or no-Molina, he just can't give Freese a pitch to hit here. Johan winds up and lets the pitch fly. A split second before the ball reaches the plate, it's clear to me that he has thrown the change-up and that it's not going to be in the strike zone. It will be ball four unless ...
FREESE SWINGS OVER THE BALL!
STRIKE THREE!!!!!!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 1, 2012 was a good night.
It's actually been a great weekend overall. The Mets won the next two games 5-0 and 6-1, and now sit at 31-23 one third of the way into the season. They are tied for first place and are on a pace to win 93 games this year.
Collinsanity continues ....
Rich
