Some notes and news from Johan Santana’s no hitter on June 1st– or the “No-Han”, as the Mets have classified the historic night.
-First time the St. Louis Cardinals have been no hit since 1990
- One of the players the Mets traded to Minnesota for Santana- P Phil Humber- threw a perfect game earlier this season for the Chicago White Sox.
- Mets starting Catcher Josh Thole backstopped the lefty and was making his 1st start since missing almost a month with a concussion.
- Friday night was a bit of an exorcism in many ways for the entire Mets organization. Besides the No Hitter history, the franchise has been haunted by the loss in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship series to these very same St. Louis Cardinals. The two players who ended that crushing defeat- OF Carlos Beltran and P Adam Wainwright- were wearing Red and White in an iconic twist that was not lost on Mets fans.
- Mets fans already love Manager Terry Collins and could see him dying in the dugout late in this game. The man wanted to get the No no for the team but was genuinely concerned about his ace pitcher, who missed all of 2011 after undergoing major shoulder surgery. Collins is the type of guy you would want to play for or trust with your son. Total class act. He told a story about managing ex Met P Sid Fernandez in the minors. Fernandez, an amazing talent, threw two no hitters for Collins and in the first one, he had a 130 pitch limit set by the Dodgers front office. He entered the final inning with 18 strikeouts and 119 pitches. Collins told him before taking the mound it was out of his hands and Fernandez proceeded to strike out the side on 9 pitches. TRUE STORY.
THE SAD PART OF THE NO NO: If you were watching the game and saw the play OF Mike Baxter made, you were glad he caught the ball but you also feared for his safety. You were right to do the latter. The popular young super sub and top pinch hitter in all of MLB will miss 6-8 weeks with two injuries suffered from his collision with the right field wall. Baxter has a broken right collarbone as well as fractured rib cartilage. Meanwhile, RH RP Ramon Ramirez strained his hamstring running in from the bullpen and is listed as day to day. The Mets would like to avoid a Dl stint and Ramirez threw indoors Monday June 4th.