More than 50 seasons, an outrageously overdue 8,020 games, and virtually an entire lifetime later for the team’s first ever generation of young fans, Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in the history of the New York Mets at Citi Field on Friday night.

The Mets defeated the defending World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0, as Santana struck out eight and walked five in his second consecutive complete game shutout. And for the first time ever, the scoreboard read “0” under the hit column for a Mets opponent at game’s end.

If there really are baseball gods out there, they were certainly on Santana’s side during this outing. His former teammate, Carlos Beltran, hit a bullet down the third base line in the sixth inning that kicked up a significant patch of chalk, but was somehow still incorrectly ruled foul by third base umpire Adrian Johnson. Beltran would ground out to third baseman David Wright on the following pitch, keeping the no hitter intact.

Santana was the beneficiary of even more good fortune in the next inning. Mike Baxter, a 28-year-old who is ironically from Queens and grew up a Mets fan, made a miraculous catch in left field where he ran full speed and crashed into the wall, robbing Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina of what appeared off the bat to be a no-doubt double.

Baxter would then lay on the warning track in agony for several minutes. His left shoulder slammed straight into the padded wall and was badly bruised. He was immediately replaced by Andres Torres, who moved to center field after switching positions with rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

“That ball that Baxter caught, he’ll go down in the annals of New York Met lore because of that,” said Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey.

But what made the historic performance by Santana even more captivating was that it was accomplished after a career-high 134 pitches by the same man who had missed more than an entire season following major shoulder capsule surgery.

When asked before the game, Mets manager Terry Collins said that he would limit his ace to somewhere between 110 and 115 pitches. His level of uneasiness visibly grew with each pitch after Santana finished the sixth inning with a staggering pitch count of 106. The last thing he wanted to do was jeopardize the two-time Cy Young Award winner’s health over one start.

However, Santana approached him after that very inning and told him that he was going to finish the game. After that, he felt that the decision was out of his hands, and he would go on to tell Santana that he was his “hero” during the seventh inning.

“I just couldn’t take him out,” said Collins during the post-game press conference, where the joy for his pitcher manifested itself into several emotional moments where he struggled to let out any words.

Nonetheless, his concern for the long-term effects was still present.

“I’m very excited for him, but in five days, if his arm is bothering him, I’m not going to feel very good,” Collins said.

Santana made a conscious effort to give his teammates just as much credit for achieving the feat despite the fact that he had just become the hero that completed what other great Mets pitchers such as Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, and several others were unable to over the previous half century.

“We did this together,” Santana said. “It is not just about me. We had a great, great game tonight. Everyone participated. We did the little things the way we were supposed to do it. And it worked out good. I thanked them because we as a team made history tonight.”

There were more close calls in the final two innings, including a soft line drive off Beltran’s bat that nearly resulted in a collision between second baseman Daniel Murphy and shortstop Omar Quintanilla to end the eighth and a ball off the end of All Star outfielder Matt Holiday’s bat that was nearly overrun by Torres to start the ninth.

After falling behind 3-0 to the 2011 World Series MVP David Freese with one out remaining, Santana fought back into the count and struck him out on the pitch that’s made him such a dominant force for all these years – his changeup.

SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen then called it the way every Mets fan had felt for all these decades. The wait was finally over, and this was no dream.

“It has happened!”

Image Courtesy of  David W. Leindecker / Shutterstock.com

The article Santana Throws Mets’ First No-Hitter in Team’s 51st Season appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

According mlb.com, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson claims that ace Johan Santana should be returning to the hill by the time the team reconvenes for Spring Training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Santana is now three weeks into his usual offseason throwing regimen, which consists of flat surface long tossing on consecutive days.

“He’s in a normal progression for Spring Training,” said Alderson during a Thursday conference call. “We expect to see him in Spring Training, and he should be ready to go at that point.”

The two time Cy Young Award winner missed the entire 2011 season after a severe left shoulder injury, suffered in late 2010, which required anterior shoulder capsule surgery – a procedure previously necessary for pitchers such as Chien-Ming Wang and Mark Prior. The management was originally optimistic that he would be pitching at the Major League level by last season’s All Star break. This remains unfulfilled.

Mets fans have been hopeful for an end to this, though, aware that Alderson previously referred to Johan Santana returning for Grapefruit League action as “a question mark” as recently as a month ago. “I didn’t want to set off alarms the last time I talked about this, but we are talking about somebody who’s coming off a long rehab,” said Alderson. “I think ultimately the questions are going to be answered in Spring Training, not beforehand.”

Obviously the “questions” Alderson eluded to refer to Santana’s physical capabilities following shoulder surgery. Conclusions cannot be drawn regarding expectations until a radar gun determines if there is a dip in velocity. As noted over the last few years, shoulder operations have had this effect more often in comparison to Tommy John elbow surgery.

Santana’s absence was definitely felt throughout the 2010 campaign. Over three seasons with New York, he has gone an impressive 40-25, boasting a 2.85 ERA. Without him, the Mets entire starting staff went an abysmal 53-58 last season, combining for a much higher ERA of 4.17. Lacking a true ace, their best pitcher record-wise wound up being rookie Dillon Gee, who went 13-6 with a 4.32 ERA in 27 starts.

New York handed the ball to 9 starters during the course of a 77-85 season – Gee, Jonathan Niese, Chris Capuano, Mike Pelfrey, and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey making up the rotation most of the way. Of those 5, Dickey, Capuano, and Pelfrey were the only ones to make at least 30 starts each.

The other four players called upon were Chris Young, Miguel Batista, rookie Chris Schwinden, and D.J. Carrasco. Young, Batista, and Schwinden each made four starts, while Carrasco had just one.

Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

The article Santana in ‘Normal progression for Spring’, Says Alderson appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.