By Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY
Updated 17m ago
Johan Santana's road back from shoulder surgery wasn't nearly as long as the New York Mets' path to the first no-hitter in franchise history.
BOX SCORE: Mets 8, Cardinals 0
Given his struggles since becoming a Met and the franchise's tortured history with no-nos, it only seems appropriate Santana authored their first.
On a cloudy night at Citi Field, Santana slogged through the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup, walking five but allowing no hits in an 8-0 victory Friday night that ended a half-century of Mets no-hit futility that stretched to 8,019 games.
ByMike Stobe, Getty Images
10TH MAN: Fan celebrates no-hitter with team
After Santana struck out David Freese to end it, a raucous celebration unfolded at Citi Field, Santana slowly accepting hugs from his fellow mates after his feat.
It wasn't easy.
Santana threw 134 pitches, 26 more than the 108 he threw on May 8, his previous season high. He got help from a Mike Baxter diving catch of a Yadier Molina fly ball in the seventh; Baxter left the game with an injury.
And a Carlos Beltran ball ruled foul in the sixth appeared to hit the chalk down the left field line.
"I saw the ball hitting outside the line, just foul," third base umpire Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter after the game.
On a replay, there is a clear mark where the ball landed on the chalk line.
"It was in front of his face, and he called it foul. I thought it was a fair ball," Beltran said. "At the end of the day, one hit wasn't going to make a difference in the ballgame. We needed to score more runs and we didn't do that."
Though it wasn't the most dominant of no-hitters, getting back to this high level was a significant achievement for Santana. He sat out the 2011 season recovering from shoulder surgery, the darkest point on a mostly disappointing stint since the Mets traded for him and signed him to a six-year, $137.5 million deal before the 2008 season.
GALLERY: Johan Santana in pictures
Friday, certainly, was the high point.
"Amazing," Santana said afterward. "Coming into this season I was just hoping to come back and stay healthy and help this team, and now I am in this situation in the greatest city for baseball.
"Finally, the first one. That is the greatest feeling ever."
He issued his fifth walk with two outs in the eighth inning, prompting manager Terry Collins to jog briskly to the mound. It was a quick conversation, and Santana quickly got former teammate Beltran on a pop to second to end the inning.
By Tim Farrell, The Star-Ledger via US Presswire
"Tonight," Santana said of Collins, "he was not going to take me out of the game. No chance."
"I just couldn't take him out," Collins said afterward.
In the ninth, Matt Holliday hit a broken-bat fly to center that Andres Torres reeled in. Allen Craig hit a soft fly to left for the second out. Freese flailed at a full-count pitch in the dirt, Santana's eighth strikeout on a night his changeup danced magically, as it did when he established himself as the premier left-handed pitcher in the game.
And so ended a 50-year wait for a Mets no-hitter.
What had been most galling to Mets fans since their inaugural season in 1962: The gaggle of ex-Mets who went on to throw no-hitters elsewhere. The list grew to seven just five weeks ago, when Mets draftee Philip Humber tossed a perfect game - for the Chicago White Sox.
It's a list that includes Hall of Famers such as Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan -- who, incidentally, tossed the fourth of his seven no-hitters on this date 27 years ago for the California Angels.
Mike Scott and David Cone went on to author no-hitters and win Cy Young Awards elsewhere. Dwight Gooden won a Cy Young and was a dominant force as a Met; his no-hitter came across town, with the Yankees.
Ryan, who threw out the first pitch in Anaheim on Friday night, last pitched for the Mets in 1971, but he was keenly aware of their history, one that includes 35 one-hitters.
"They've had a lot of history of one-hitters, and it's because of the great pitchers they've had there," Ryan told CBS Sportsline's Scott Miller in Anaheim. "When you think of Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden there, and some of the other guys, it's amazing they never did."
Santana won two of those when he was a Minnesota Twin. Friday, he added a historic no-hitter to what's a sterling body of work.
Oh, and he also put the San Diego Padres on the clock. They remain without a no-hitter in their history.
Contributing: AP
See photos of: New York Mets, Johan Santana
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