NEW YORK — Just under a month ago a decade ago, Johan Santana removed the burden of the story from Citi Field. When Santana fielded the first no-hitter in franchise history, he opened the gates for others.
It was once again a long time before the Mets rose to prominence with one of baseball’s finest young rotations. Across the league, there have been 39 no-hitters following Santana’s, including efforts from 18 different teams. But it wasn’t until a chilly night at Citi Field on Friday that the Mets added another.
Tylor Megill pitched the first five innings before Drew Smith, Joely Rodríguez, Seth Lugo and Edwin Díaz combined in the last 12 outs to complete the historic 3-0 win over the Phillies.
The necessary offense came in the form of a Jeff McNeil double single in the fifth and a Pete Alonso solo homer in the sixth, both ahead of Aaron Nola.
Though Megill had little trouble in the early innings, his pace was low and he struggled to tuck batters, resulting in high pitch counts despite the lack of hitting. The right-hander went a batter in the second inning and two more in the fifth, which he finished with 88 pitches. At that point, manager Buck Showalter removed him in favor of Smith, who knocked out four of the five batters he faced.
Rodríguez stepped in, footed the first batter he was facing, but quickly led to a double play late in the inning. He and Lugo combined to a strokeless eighth place before Díaz finished the effort in ninth. This not only allowed the Mets to complete the 17th combined no-hitter in AL/NL history, but also won an important division game against the Phillies.