So, what do I lead with when this no-hitter is over? Bob Moose in 1969? Max Scherzer in 2015? Proof that a no-hitter thrown at the Mets late in a season doesn’t necessarily preclude that season from having a successful (maybe Amazin’ly successful) postseason? That’s a tough sell. I know it’s true, but when the Mets have looked like they’ve looked for not only these eight innings when they’ve done literally nothing against Bowden Francis but for days on end, who wants to be the house optimist?
Should I compare it to Chris Heston in 2015? Yes, we did get no-hit twice en route to a pennant. The first one had more novelty to it, given that it was the first one we’d been smothered by in 22 years. We were also in the midst of a teamwide slump then, but that was in June, and the game was effectively out of reach, and the difference was that by the time it got to the ninth inning, I was kind of pulling for Chris Heston to finish the job, because what the hell, right? Maybe not right, but it’s where my head was on that night. That night, however, isn’t this afternoon. This afternoon in Toronto is in September. Nothing’s been clinched the way it was when Scherzer went medieval on our bats at the tail end of 2015. Resolution to the season isn’t far off the way it was when Heston rose from oblivion to stifle us in the promising, albeit pre-Cespedes portion of that year.
The Ed Halicki no-hitter from 1975? Not much relevance. Darryl Kile? That was a September, but the September of 1993, a year that had spiraled into hopelessness by May. Bill Stoneman’s in 1972 was also in Canada, but so what? Jim Bunning’s perfect game was historic, in its own category. Sandy Koufax was Sandy Koufax. Jim Maloney carried his into the eleventh. They say it wasn’t a no-hitter — thanks, Johnny Lewis — but I’ll bet it very much felt like one that night in 1965.
We have a few too many opposition no-hitters to reference. We don’t need another.
All we’ve got going for us after eight innings on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, where Bowden Francis’s no-hit bid is concerned is maybe he’s inherited some of that Dave Stieb come close for the Blue Jays but not get it energy. Also, the game’s not over with yet, but that feels like a technicality. The Mets allowed themselves to see all of six pitches in the eighth. The first two batters made outs after one pitch apiece. Is the bus to the airport idling so loudly that it’s distracting you fellows? I know Rogers Centre used to be called SkyDome, but do you have to sky out practically every at-bat? What a waste of Sean Manaea’s six-and-two-thirds of one-run ball, not to mention the credible relief we got from Reed Garrett and Danny Young. Maybe a 1-0 loss via no-hitter is the bottoming out this “attack” needs to get going in Philadelphia this weekend. No, I don’t know how getting no-hit would serve to jump-start the bats, but I’m grasping here. I’m going to have to write this disaster up. I need something.
About the only thing interesting left to not exactly root for but take in is hearing Keith Raad call the last out of a no-hitter. That was the main reason I rooted for Chris Heston in 2015. I wanted to hear Howie Rose do the honors, even if it was from the victimized side. Howie understood the responsibility that night. A no-hitter is a no-hitter. I think Keith gets it, too.
But that’s the smallest of consolations when we’re tied with the Braves for the final playoff spot, they play the Nationals tonight, and our schedule gets much harder after Toronto. Then again, Toronto hasn’t been easy. This is too much of a callback to the Angels series and the A’s series. Why are we playing all these allegedly crummy American League teams if we can’t take at least two out of three from all of them?
Who’s up to start the top of the ninth, anyway? Yeah, like that’s gonna matter [1].
[2]Spoiler alert: It did matter.