Here are some notes and reactions from around the Mets and media on last night’s no-hitter by Chris Heston, and the questionable state of the Mets offense.
Jared Diamond, Wall Street Journal
Nonetheless, the Mets didn’t put up much of a fight. With two outs in the eighth inning, third baseman Eric Campbell hit a hard ground ball into the shortstop hole, but Brandon Crawford fielded it easily and threw him out. It didn’t look like much, but the Mets never came closer to recording a hit than that.
But perhaps this is a good omen. The last time the Mets were no-hit at home was against Pittsburgh’s Bob Moose on Sept. 20, 1969. Less than a month later, they won their first World Series in team history.
No Apologies
Three outs away from completing the biggest pitching moment of his life, Heston wanted to apologize. While running the bases during the eighth inning, he forgot how many outs there were and got doubled off at second base on a line drive that prevented Matt Duffy from scoring another run and cost Nori Aoki an RBI.
So in the dugout in the ninth inning, before he finished off his first career no-hitter, Heston went to Duffy to say he was sorry. “Dude, don’t worry about it,” Duffy said. “Just pitch.”
Bob Klapisch, The Record
Let’s put it in the simplest-possible terms: with the National League’s 13th-ranked offense (batting average), the Mets’ success has been strictly one-dimensional and will remain that way until GM Sandy Alderson makes a significant trade. The Mets need to acquire another run-producer to replace David Wright, who isn’t coming back any time soon, if at all. There isn’t a single .300 hitter in the lineup, and there isn’t enough power to otherwise compensate.
Kevin Long, a talented hitting instructor and gifted communicator, has so far been unable to crack the code on what one talent evaluator derisively called, “a group of Triple-A hitters.” Without Wright and Daniel Murphy, who’s currently on the disabled list, that assessment, although harsh, isn’t entirely wrong.
Michael Cuddyer, New York Mets
I don’t think we need to have a team meeting,” Cuddyer said. “We got no-hit. It happens. But your attitude coming in is still upbeat, excited to play tomorrow. And hopefully everybody feeds off of that. And that’s how we’re going to come in.
The guys in this clubhouse are capable of going out there and getting the job done. Tonight we didn’t. He was better than us and he pitched well and he threw a no-hitter.
Sal Licata, SNY
This team is so bad offensively that they got what they deserved tonight. It is an embarrassment from top to bottom.
Is it too much to ask for Curtis Granderson to swing the bat? Do I really need to see him staring at strike three down the middle? I mean he’s going down and not even fighting, swing the freaking bat.
Andy Martino, Daily News
Sandy Alderson has always appeared to define his approach with long-range, rational thinking. He does not make deals based on a single game, so Mets fans should not expect a new acquisition in the morning, simply because of what transpired here.
But Alderson has watched for months now, and must realize that his depleted lineup is inadequate, wasting a rotation that he has worked for years to build. Bad luck is the primary culprit, with David Wright’s spine, Travis d’Arnaud’s finger, and Daniel Murphy’s quad all hitting at once. Doesn’t matter. This is the new reality, and it must be addressed.
Unlucky Seven
The Mets have now been no-hit seven times in their 53-year history. The last pitcher to do it was Darryl Kile on Sept. 8, 1993, as a member of the Houston Astros. The full list of pitchers to no-hit the Mets: Sandy Koufax, Jim Bunning, Bob Moose, Bill Stoneman, Ed Halicki, Kile and Heston.
