The Giants' Chris Heston no-hits the Mets

The Giants' Chris Heston no-hits the Mets

It was one of the odder no-hitters in baseball history. He allowed no hits or walks, and the Giants made no errors, but it was not a perfecto. In fact, the Mets got three baserunners ...

How? Heston hit three Mets with pitches!

Although 27 years old, Chris Heston is essentially a rookie, having pitched only five major league innings before this year. He spent six full years in the minors, with uneven results. In 2012 he was the Eastern League's Pitcher of the year with a 2.24 ERA, but his promotion to AAA in 2013 was disappointing as his ERA ballooned to 5.80. A second year in the Pacific Coast League proved far more impressive (12-9, 3.38) and earned him a shot at the bigs.

This was not his first great game this year. He threw a complete game 2-hitter against the Astros in May, and has had seven terrific starts in which he went six innings or more and allowed one earned run or less. Oddly, his other five starts were disasters in which he allowed more runs than the number of innings he pitched! The Giants scored a lot of runs behind him at the end of May, salvaging two of his weak outings, so the team is 8-4 in his starts. That's the same record they have behind Bumgarner, and better than they have done with Vogelsong, Lincecum, Peavy or Hudson on the mound!