Chris Heston Throws No-Hitter Against New York Mets

Tuesday’s meeting between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets was a matchup of two rookie pitchers. One is a number-one prospect called “Thor” that has the baseball world buzzing with his nearly 100 mile per hour fastball. The other, known as “Presto”, is a fringe prospect who has been forced into duty by a ton of injuries. One of the two threw a no-hitter on Tuesday.

Chris Heston matched up with Noah Syndergaard, and the unheralded 27-year-old rookie Heston outpitched his 22-year-old hype machine counterpart Syndergaard. That’s what makes baseball so great. Anything can happen on any day.

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Heston was in complete command when he took the mound. He started the day by retiring the first 10 batters he faced, including six strikeouts. Things got a little weird for the next two batters, as Heston let a pair of pitches slip, and plunked both men to put them on board. The second batter, Lucas Duda, barely had his uniform grazed to earn his base. Heston would come right back by inducing a groundball double play, his specialty, to end the inning with no harm, and no foul.

After that double play, Heston would retire the next 12 batters in succession to get to the ninth inning. We’ve heard it all year long about Heston. He doesn’t get rattled, and the moment is never too big for him. Leading off the ninth, it looked like maybe the moment finally got too big.

The first pitch of the ninth inning was another hit batter, as Heston pulled a fastball inside to bean Mets’ catcher Anthony Recker, his third hit by pitch of the night. Heston, just like the last time out of the stretch, calmed his nerves, and trusted his catcher. He retired the next three hitters in order, all by strikeout, all looking, to complete the first no-hitter of the 2015 season, and was mobbed by teammates in celebration.

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“I trust that guy with everything back there.” Heston said regarding his catcher Buster Posey in the postgame interview with Giants’ announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. Heston has no reason to not trust Posey behind the dish, as Posey has been in this spot before. Heston’s no-no is Posey’s third of his career, following Matt Cain‘s perfect game in 2012, and Tim Lincecum‘s first no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in 2013.

Heston was working with the best stuff he’s had since a complete game two-hitter against the Houston Astros that came five starts ago. His curveball was sharp and had a nice big break on it. He showed that off to Lucas Duda, the third batter of the game, when Heston got him to swing through it on a full count. His changeup offered a great velocity change, and his sinker worked all night. 14 of Heston’s outs were recorded on groundballs. He also recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts, six of which were called third strikes

All of that grouped together equaled the 17th no-hitter in Giants’ franchise history, including the fourth in four years, and fifth in seven seasons. Heston becomes the third Giants’ rookie to throw a no-hitter, joining Christy Mathewson in 1901 and Jeff Tesreau in 1912. Overall, he’s the first rookie to throw a no-hitter since Clay Buchholz of the Boston Red Sox did so in 2007.

Heston didn’t just do it on the mound, but he took care of business with the bat too. After grounding into a double play with the bases loaded in the second inning, Heston picked himself up in the fourth inning, as he singled up the middle with the bases loaded again, driving in a pair of runs to extend the Giants’ lead to 3-0. Heston would single to right field in the eighth inning, and ended his night with two hits in four at-bats.

Judging from his previous starts, you wouldn’t think that Heston would come out so dominant. In his four starts before Tuesday, Heston had allowed 26 hits and 16 runs in 18.2 innings. He received the benefit of getting two extra days off, and pitching on six days of rest, he came out like the Heston from earlier this year.

Heston’s no-hitter is what makes baseball the beautiful game that it is. A guy comes out of nowhere, becomes a stalwart in the Giants’ rotation, and ends up throwing a no-hitter, joining pitchers like Mathewson, Cain, Lincecum, Gaylord Perry, and Juan Marichal.

No matter what happens from here on out, Heston will forever be remembered for what he did on June 9th, 2015.

Congratulations, Hesto!

Next: Giants Face Mets, and Some Really Good, Young Pitchers