Johan Santana Tosses First Mets No-Hitter

After playing a total of 8,019 games and currently in franchise’s 51^st season the Mets finally have a no-hitter. Johan Santana did it Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 8-0 win.

It did not come easy for Santana as he labored through the game and walked five batters. After throwing 118 pitches and walking Rafael Furcal with two outs in the eighth inning Mets manager Terry Collins visited Santana as it was clear Santana was laboring and tired but Collins left him in the game. Santana ended up throwing a career high 134 pitches in the outing. His previous season high was 108.

Santana struck out David Freese to seal it in the ninth and a celebration broke out on the pitcher’s mound while Santana was treated to cheers from the Mets crowd at Citi Field. Santana struck out eight in the game.

Santana sat out the entire 2011 season recovering from shoulder surgery but has been good this year with a 3-2 record and a 2.38 ERA.

Of course the no-hitter did not come without controversy. In the sixth inning Carlos Beltran ripped a line drive down the left-field line and it was ruled foul however on replay it showed that the ball hit the chalk.

In a season that most fans had written off before it even started the Mets have shocked many standing only 1 game out of first place in the NL East with a 29-23 record.