Last night, Johan Santana became the first Met in club history to pitch a no-hitter.
Santana allowed five walks while striking out eight batters, throwing a career-high 134 pitches for his second consecutive complete-game shutout.
Of the 134 pitches thrown by Santana, he induced just 18 swings and misses.
Entering play last night, the Cardinals were leading the league in batting average (.281), on-base percentage (.345) and slugging percentage (.460).
It was the first time a Met has thrown back-to-back complete-game shutouts since David Cone accomplished the feat in 1992, and it was the Mets National League-best fifth shutout of the season.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 8,020 games it took the Mets to get a no-hitter is the most games from the start of any franchise without a no-hitter in 137 years of Major League Baseball.
Santana joins Dwight Gooden as only the second pitcher to throw his first no-hitter after pitching for ten years or more, and Santana is the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter (age 33) since Randy Johnson threw his perfect game at age 40 in 2004.
Santana became the first major-leaguer to throw a no-hitter after having thrown a shutout in his previous start since Dave Righetti no-hit the Red Sox for the Yankees in 1983.
Michael Baron: I still can't believe it
actually happened last night. I cannot remember a time over the last 12 years or so, even during the 2006 playoffs, when there has been so much positive energy surrounding the Mets as there is right now. The funny thing is, including myself, there are probably a very small amount of people who believed Santana could go the distance, let alone throw a no-hitter. As R.A. Dickey pointed out, Santana didn't have his best stuff last night and struggled with his fastball command early. But he showed the world exactly what kind of baseball player he is with that epic performance. He is a man of guts and guile, athleticism, determination, wit, mound presence, and tremendous physical talent. He knows how to get outs even when he's not at his best, and has now shown everyone in the game he is still one of the best pitchers in baseball.
For his entire career, Santana's signature has been his change-up. The final out last night came via a strikeout of David Freese on that change-up in Santana's classic location: down and away. But lately, Santana has incorporated this slider, and while it's had just a tiny amount of break on it, he's had pinpoint control with it on the corners in his last two starts and has proven to be a completely different look for the hitter. But with both his slider and change-up last night, he had nearly an equal differential against his fastball ' he was eight to nine miles per hour off his fastball consistently with both of those pitches, and the Cardinals offense was off-balanced from start to finish.
Mike Puma of the New York Post talks in depth with John Thole, who says of his return from the disabled list, 'It's kind of like Opening Day for me again.'
Triple-A reliever Elvin Ramirez and C Josh Thole will join the Mets on Friday at Citi Field.
Prior to tonight's game, Jeff Wilpon spoke with reporters and according to MetsBlog's Vinny Cartiglia, stated there is no reason to rush the David Wright situation, saying: