The New York Mets are currently giving fans a 66 percent discount on tickets this homestand because the team's starters struck out 66 batters on their recent West Coast road trip. San Francisco Giants' fans benefitted most from that discount tonight.
Giants' rookie starter Chris Heston threw a no-hitter against the Mets on Tuesday night and San Francisco defeated New York 5-0 at Citi Field. The right-hander hit three batters throughout his nine innings of work and struck out 11. He retired Danny Muno, Curtis Granderson and Ruben Tejada in the bottom of the ninth to pitch the first no-hitter of 2015.
The 27-year-old threw the 17th no-hitter in the history of the Giants and the franchise now has had at least one pitcher throw a no-hitter in each of the past four seasons. Matt Cain threw a perfect game against the Houston Astros in 2012 while Tim Lincecum no-hit the San Diego Padres in 2013 and 2014.
Heston improved to 6-4 on the season and lowered his ERA to 3.77. He threw 72 of his 110 pitches for strikes and shut down the struggling Mets' offense. During New York's road trip the club went 3-4 and scored only eight runs combined in their losses.
The Giants are currently on an East Coast road trip of their own and their offense got to Mets' starter Noah Syndergaard early on. Angel Pagan started things off with an RBI groundout in the top of the first inning and then Heston helped out his own cause with a two-run single in the fourth. Third baseman Matt Duffy homered in the sixth and then second baseman Joe Panik followed suit in the seventh (off of Dillon Gee).
Heston finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and joined Panik, Duffy, Buster Posey and Nori Aoki as the other Giants to have multi-hit games.
Syndergaard fell to 2-4 after surrendering four earned runs on 10 hits and one walk in six innings of work.
The no-hitter comes just 15 games (13 starts) into Heston's young career. He started the season with the Giants because Cain has been working his way back from an elbow issue since undergoing surgery last year.
Heston's outing tonight was the 245th no-hitter thrown in the modern era and the first since Washington Nationals' starter Jordan Zimmermann shut down the Miami Marlins on the final day of the 2014 season (Sept. 28).
