The Mets and Phillies had done this before in Flushing. On Father’s Day in 1964, Jim Bunning of Philadelphia played a perfect game against the Mets at Shee Stadium. Bunning on his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown, NY. Only 90 pitches were needed here to try to remember now.
If the game of bunny was a perfect example for a museum, then Friday’s game was more appropriate for the freezer door. Both are works of art. One is just a little less perfect.
It took five Mets pitchers and a total of 159 pitches to make the Phillies a no-hit on Friday, a 3-0 win over City Field. Starter, Tyler Miguel, pulled after 88 pitches and five innings. The bullpen relay was completed by Drew Smith, Jolie Rodriguez, Seth Lugo and Edwin Diaz, with the pitchers releasing six walks along the way.
The season saw the addition of the first no-hitter, 17th with more than one pitcher and first with an exact five. The 159 pitches are the highest for no-hitters since at least 1988, when pitch-count data became widely available.
Smith, Rodriguez and Lugo said they did not know about the no-hitter until the ninth inning. Sitting with them at the post-game news conference, Diaz was incredulous: “So no one but me knew?” He said.
By the last three outs, of course, everyone knew. And as complicated as the box score may seem, Diaz ended the evening on a high note, with three All-Stars – Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto – Hard, with a biting slider.
The players entered the field, stabbed Diaz and rained sunflower seeds on each other. This victory took the Mets to a record 15-6, the best in the Major. They haven’t lost a single series yet.
Catcher James McCann said: “The most impressive part of our team is that if he’s not the one to get you, he’s the other. “And that’s what you see tonight – kids picking up each other with pens, dropping more zeros in multiple columns. That was the beginning of our year. It was a team effort. “
Miguel is now 4-0 with a run-scoring average of 1.93, with Jacob DeGrom, the injured Ekka, turned into a rotation. Miguel said he was never part of a no-hitter at any level, nor was center fielder Brandon Nimmo – who was like a dove catching a sinking liner from Jean Segura in the third inning.
McCann caught Lucas Giolito’s full-game no-hitter for the Chicago White Sox in 2020. But McCann noted that the game was played without fans due to epidemic restrictions. The Mets sold 32,416 tickets for Friday’s game, and McCan adjusted for the sound.
When Diaz reached the mound for the ninth time, McCann told him that he would use the traditional symbols – the fingers, that is – the signals, instead of the new Pitchcom system, which hears the signals through the receiver in the pitcher’s cap.
“It’s going to be loud,” McCann warned Diaz, who was eager to finish the heater with the slider.
Diaz, who has 17 strikeouts in 10 innings this season, said: “It was really good today. “In the bullpen, it was ugly. I knew he would call the slider a lot because I was facing the heart of the order.
Lugo, who took the last two wickets in the eighth, withdrew to the weight class in the ninth inning. As Diaz warmed up, Lugo noticed on the Mets broadcast – a call from Gary Cohen, who was celebrating his 64th birthday – that Phillies had not received any hits.
“Drew, don’t say anything, but look,” Lugo told Smith. “We have to get out.”
So he crowded into the dugout with his teammates, including Pete Alonso, who played in the sixth inning, but was eliminated for defense in the ninth inning. Alonso said the dugout felt like a soda can, moved but still capped, ready to explode. Alonso said he had never been to a no-hitter experience, watching highlights on television.
He said, “You get this feeling of excitement. “You’re like that, I hope it’s like that, I hope he doesn’t hit a broken bat duck fart on someone’s head or anything. You are just praying, like, please, please, please let this happen. “
For decades, those prayers have never been answered for the Mets. In 2012, until their 51st season, to get their first no-hitter – Johan Santana, also on Friday at Citi Field. Santana bowled 134 pitches, including those hit by the St. Louis Cardinals’ Carlos Beltran. He landed in a reasonable area but was called a foul because of Santana’s gem.
With two bids broken by Tom Sewer in the ninth inning – after a near miss – the Mets are probably to blame for the cosmic break. But PostScript was worrisome for Santana, who made just 10 more starts in the Major with 8.27 E.R.A, before the end of his career due to a shoulder problem.
