Skip to main content

No No-Hitters, But Many Minis...

Here, we pay tribute to Billy Wagner, who has thrown eight no-hit innings this year, the first pitcher in Mets history to open a season with eight straight hitless appearances of at least one inning each.

He's also the first pitcher in Mets history to have nine straight hitless outings of at least an inning each. You may recall (or blocked it out) that Wagner's last appearance in 2007 (7-4 loss to the Marlins on the final Friday) yielded a hit-free inning. So he's basically pitched the equivalent of a no-hitter, at nine innings and counting.

The Mets have never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter in a regular season game. However, they've had "mini" no-hitters. Many of them.

* It was the 3,270th time that a Mets pitcher appeared in a game, PITCHED AT LEAST ONE INNING, and finished with no hits allowed. John Franco is your all-time leader with 238 full-blown "minis."

Your Top 5
Mets "Mini" No-Hit Outings
(ie: 1+ innings, finished with no hits)
John Franco 238
Armando Benitez 160
Jesse Orosco 93
Turk Wendell 91
Aaron Heilman 73
>> Next is Tug McGraw, 70

* Billy Wagner's hitless ninth was the 4,519th time that a Mets pitcher appeared in a game, retired AT LEAST ONE BATTER, and finished with no hits allowed. John Franco is your all-time leader with 283 of what I'm going to call "mini-minis."

* The longest "Could've" in Mets history (defined as "Longest outing in which the starting pitcher left with a no-hitter intact) is 5 innings, by Sid Fernandez, against the Giants on May 15, 1987. I attended this game, one in which Fernandez let after injuring has hamstring running out a triple. Doug Sisk blew the no-no in the 6th.

The next-longest "Could've" is 3 innings, by Matt Ginter, against the Phillies on May 31, 2004. Orber Moreno gave up the first hit, in the 4th.

Ranking third on the list: Nolan Ryan (that figures!), who started and pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings before leaving against the Braves on August 10, 1969. Don Cardwell relieved and allowed a hit to the first batter he faced. Oh, what could have been...

* The longest hitless relief appearance in Mets history is 4 2/3 innings, done 3 times. Pat Mahomes was the most recent, against the Expos on July 27, 2000. The others with outings of 4 2/3 innings of hitless relief: Tom Hausman (1980) and Roger McDowell (1985).

* The longest hitless appearance in a Mets walk-off win is 4 innings, done twice. It was first done by Randy Tate against the Cubs on September 18, 1975. It was done again by Skip Lockwood, against the Dodgers on June 17, 1976. In both instances, the game was won on a Dave Kingman walk-off home run.

For more following of the Mets pursuit of a no-hitter, I encourage you to visit
http://www.nonohitters.com

Comments

Anonymous said…
Didn't John Maine get a 7 hitless innings last year against the Marlins?
metswalkoffs said…
Yes, but he didn't leave the game having allowed no hits.

That's the purpose of the post.

The purpose of the post was to look at games in which a pitcher allowed no hits.

Popular posts from this blog

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu...

Green Party

* Mets walk-off win #347 was the Mets 6th this season, against no defeats. This is the first time in Mets history that they've started a season with at least 6 walk-off wins before their first walk-off defeat. * It was Shawn Green's 2nd career walk-off home run, his first since September 20, 2001, when he homered in the 13th inning to beat Greg Swindell and the Diamondbacks, 3-2. It was the second walk-off home run allowed by Russ Springer, but his first since April 11, 2000, when Ed Sprague and the Padres beat him with a 13th inning home run. It was the first home run that Springer allowed all season. * This is the 5th time in Mets history that they've had as few as 3 hits and won a game in walk-off fashion. The last was June 28, 1998, when they had 3 hits and beat the Yankees 2-1 on Luis Lopez's sacrifice fly (the game where Brian McRae nearly cost the Mets the winning run by wandering aimlessly off first base on the SF). The fewest Mets hits in a Mets walk-off win is...

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings ...