The Day After: Reflecting on Johan Santana’s No-Hitter

Added by Eddie Utley on June 2, 2012.

Johan Santana's no-hitter was not short of drama.

Johan Santana threw  a no hitter last night, the first ever by a New York Mets pitcher. Throughout the game, you could see some players going all out to try to keep it intact. It looked like he would be kept to the pitch count, which the Mets had put in place for him, and Santana was not on point for much of the game either.

Santana walked five Cardinals batters in the game. The fans at Citi Field seemed quiet in the 6^th and 7^th inning when Johan went back out, but I guess it’s because everyone was expecting him to be pulled over a pitch count. When Johan came back out for the 8^th inning, fans started going nuts for every out. This wasn’t the offensive challenged Padres he was doing it against, he did this to the best hitting team in baseball, the defending World Series Champions.

Mike Baxter, a hometown kid, went all out for a ball in the 7^th inning that no one thought he had a chance of getting to. It was sure to be the first hit given up on the night by Santana. Baxter, however, ran it down and made the catch before running into the wall with his left shoulder. Baxter was forced to leave the game. No word yet on the injury, but Baxter wasn’t moving his arm, so he may be gone for a while. The Mets hope that won’t be the case. Endy Chavez’s catch in 2006 was the most memorable catch in New York history, but it looks like Baxter now has “the catch.”

Every potential no hitter has a casualty, but it’s not always an injury. Mike Baxter has been one of the biggest bright spots this year for the Mets and has kept Andres Torres pinned to the bench. Guess we’re going to see more Torres if Baxter needs a trip to the disabled list.

On another positive note from last night, Lucas Duda looks like he’s heating up at the plate. He is being ultra aggressive lately. He’s been swinging earlier in counts when he was getting the only fastballs he would see in an at bat. The Mets lineup has been lacking power and Duda is hitting homers with Wright hitting some long doubles. Even Jeremy Hefner hit a homerun. Citi Field always plays bigger in the summer, and it looks like it’s beginning to happen once again.

What a great day to be a Mets fan. It only took 50 years. I can’t believe I’ve been a fan for more than half of their existence. The Mets have had some great pitchers walk through their locker room, Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, Tom Seaver and none of them could make it happen. I always thought that if it happened for the Mets it would be a junk baller and not a power guy, though Johan is no longer a power guy but he’s far from a junk baller.