No Hits, Three Hit

On Tuesday night, Kevin and I saw Giants rookie Chris Heston throw a 'no-no' at Citi Field. Heston only had a perfect game until the fourth inning, when he plunked Ruben Tejada and Lucas Duda in consecutive at-bats. He also hit Anthony Recker to start the ninth.

We took advantage of another discount ticket offer but then watched the game from the Shea Bridge—behind right-center field and a short walk from where Goose Island Sofie was on tap. Listening to WFAN after dropping Kevin off at home, the announcer sneered at the Mets fans who cheered for Heston. We were two of them.

And why not? There have been only 240 no hitters since 1901, an average of two per season. Heston is the first rookie to throw one since Clay Buchholz did it for Boston in 2007. The Mets have been no-hit seven times in their 53 seasons (which is also how many times they have made the post-season).  The most recent was by Darryl Kile, with the Astros in 1993. The last time the team was no-hit at home was 1969, by Pittsburgh's Bob Moose. Only a purist would begrudge a fan the excitement.

After all, the Mets gave the hometown crowd nothing to cheer about. Some no-hitters are preserved by dazzling plays in the field, but not Tuesday's game. The only hard hit came in the eighth when Eric Campbell rocketed one to shortstop Brandon Crawford, who backhanded the ball and fired it across the diamond.

Heston notched 11 strike-outs, three of them by Curtis Granderson, and six on called third strikes, including all three outs in the ninth. They looked so bad in the final frame that Kevin thought the Mets might be trying to help Heston into the record book. Box score.

Kevin got his picture taken with Edwin ("Eddie") Boison, better known as the superfan Cowbell Man. What brilliant marketing: You don't even have to see him to know he's there. Clank. Clank. Clank. Let's. Go. Mets. Kevin asserts that Cowbell Man asked the Mets to "comp" him his tickets—he is at almost every home game—and the team refused. I could not find anything online to confirm or debunk that bit of Flushing folklore.

Father and son.

We'll be back at Citi Field on Monday, to see the Mets take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Thanks to a discount on selected seats, the tickets to the Giants and Blue Jays cost a total of $27.45 with fees. The cost could have been even less but we bought decent seats for Tuesday's game.

An 11-game winning streak made general manager Sandy Alderson seem prescient when he announced in the off-season that the Mets were good enough to make the playoffs. But if you set aside those 12 days in April, the injury plagued team is 21-29, a .420 ball club. Get me in the door for cheap and I'll stand and drink a farmhouse ale or two. Maybe I will get lucky and see history be made.