Johan Santana Throws 1st Mets No-Hitter!

Johan Santana has thrown the first no-hitter in New York Mets history. And it only took 50 years!

Santana did it against the Cardinals Friday night as intrigue swirled over whether Terry Collins would allow Santana to finish the game. He is on a pitch count of 110 pitches following shoulder surgery, but Collins left him in to throw 134 pitches.

Santana struck out David Freese for the final out as the Mets swarmed the field and Citi Field went nuts.

Carlos Beltran should have ended the no-hitter in the sixth. He hit a sharp grounder over the third base bag which the umpire ruled foul. However replays showed it clearly hit the foul line and should have been fair.

In the seventh Mike Baxter made an incredible play to keep the bid alive, running back and reaching for the ball, slamming his shoulder into the wall and hanging onto the ball. He was removed from the game.

Aside from Tom Seaver who did it three times, Santana is the only Mets pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning.

Oh, and the Mets scored eight runs. Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off the first with a single off of second base. David Wright followed that with a long fly to center that Beltran, playing his first game in New York since being traded, misplayed for a double to leave runners on second and third. Lucas Duda hit a sacrifice fly to plate Nieuwenhuis, and then Daniel Murphy tripled to right center to make the score 2-0.

Nieuwenhuis got things going again with a leadoff single in the sixth. Wright walked and then Duda hit a three-run home run to extend the lead to 5-0. Duda hit two homers in his last game, so he is on a nice roll.

The Mets added three more runs in the seventh, one on a bases-loaded walk and two on a Murphy single.

Mets win 8-0 as Santana enters Mets history.