As the light of a new day pours into the windows of my apartment, the realization of what happened to the Mets on Tuesday night becomes harder and harder to avoid.
Playing in front of their home fans last night, the Mets were no-hit by Giants rookie pitcher Chris Heston–a sentence I still can’t believe I’m writing.
Certainly, a congratulations is on order for Heston.
As a fan of the Mets, for whatever irrational reason, my biggest fear to see them get no-hit. This franchise has now been the victims of seven no hitters in their history, and last night it happened to them for the first time since Astros starter Darryl Kile accomplished the feat on September 8, 1993–when I was 2-years-old.
Over the years I’ve seen my share of struggling Mets offenses and while there was the occasional threat, it had never happened. Unfortunately for myself and many other Mets fans out there, this fear became a reality last night.
Quite honestly I think I’m still in shock over the whole thing. Not only did this team get no-hit but they didn’t even come close to a hit against Heston who, with all due respect, isn’t exactly Madison Bumgarner.
Heston, a 12th round draft pick, was once designated for assignment by the Giants to make room on their roster for Jeff Francoeur. He’s made 128 starts in his minor league career, where he is 46-45 with a 3.65 ERA. This is no top prospect the Mets were facing or not even a guy who throws 98 MPH, but someone who’s struggled to find himself early in his professional career.
In a season where the Mets offense has struggled more and more as the year has gone on, Tuesday night was obviously rock bottom for this team. Not only were they unable to record a hit against Heston, but they didn’t work a single walk–their only base runners came on three hit-by-pitches–struck out 11 times, went down three times looking in the 9th and only hit one ball out of the infield the entire night.
Amazingly enough, this team is still in first place, but it sure doesn’t feel that way…
The major point of emphasis for the Mets this season has been how badly they need to acquire offense. Even with Travis d’Arnaud and Dilson Herrera returning this week, the presumable return of Daniel Murphy and the hopeful, eventual return of David Wright, it’s still not enough. This team has been struggling offensively ever since their 11-game winning streak back in April, and while last night’s no-hit loss may only be one game, it is also the exclamation point to their season-long problem.
This team needs to go out and do something, and they have to do it now.
Just Mets 