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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.

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