Heston no-hits Mets for Giants’ 17th no-no

Chris Heston, a 27-year-old rookie making just his 13th major league start for the San Francisco Giants, no-hit the New York Mets on Tuesday night at Citi Field for a 5-0 win.

Heston struck out 11 batters and did not allow a walk, but he hit three batters for the first no-hitter thrown at Citi Field since Johan Santana’s 2012 no-no.

Heston was perfect through three innings as his Giants built a 3-run lead off Noah Syndergaard by the middle of the third. Heston retired Curtis Granderson to make it 10 straight before plunking Ruben Tejada in the arm with a 75 mph curve ball and then grazing Lucas Duda’s pant leg with an 89-mph fastball. Heston got out of the jam by inducing a 5-4-3 double-play out of Michael Cuddyer.

Matt Duffy extended the Giants’ lead with a solo homer to left off Syndergaard in the sixth, and Joe Panik tagged relieved Dillon Gee for another dinger in the seventh to make it 5-0.

Meanwhile, Heston kept retiring Mets batters and only to return to the Giants dugout to be ignored (per superstitious baseball protocol). His only other blemish came in the ninth when he plunked catcher Anthony Recker in the upper arm with an 89-mph fastball. He then caught pinch-hitter Danny Muno
Granderson and Tejada looking to complete the no-no with his ninth, 10th and 11th K’s.

The Giants have now thrown 17 no-hitters during the team’s tenure in both New York and San Francisco, trailing only the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (25), the Boston Red Sox (18) and the Chicago White Sox (18) for most my a franchise. Giants catcher Buster Posey joined an elite group behind the plate for three no-nos: Silver Flint, Ray Schalk, Ed McFarland, Bill Carrigan, Val Picinich, Luke Sewell, Jim Hegan, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Del Crandall, Jeff Torborg, Alan Ashby, Charles Johnson and Carlos Ruiz. Only Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox caught four no-hitters. (The Giants’ Hector Sanchez caught Lincecum’s second no-no in 2014 or Posey would be tied with Varitek.)

On the other side, the Mets have tied the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels with seven no-hitters thrown against the clubs. The Mets didn’t really have any hard-hit balls all night, save a near infield hit to shortstop Brandon Crawford by Eric Campbell in the eighth, fielded on the backhand.