San Francisco Giants pitcher Chris Heston threw a no-hitter against the New York Mets in Tuesday’s 5-0 victory at Citi Field.
Three hit batsmen prevented Heston from tossing a perfect game, but the 27-year-old rookie nevertheless strutted dazzling stuff on the road. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports praised Heston’s command of multiple complex pitches in his arsenal:
ESPN’s Adam Rubin added context to the Mets’ batting woes, while the Giants’ official Twitter account provided some franchise background to supplement what was the 17th no-hitter in their history:
Andrew Baggarly of Bay Area News Group noted how unprecedented it was for Heston to plunk multiple batters en route to a no-no:
Bob Nightengale of USA Today highlighted how Heston saved some of his very best stuff for the last inning, when the pressure to finish the job reached its peak:
SportsCenter showed footage of Heston’s final strikeout on Twitter:
Heston threw 110 pitches, 72 of which went for strikes, for a rather proficient outing that improved his record to 6-4 with a 3.77 ERA.
CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman noticed how San Francisco has had a tendency to completely shut down the opposition in recent seasons:
Fellow Giants pitcher George Kontos congratulated Heston afterward:
Jon Morosi of Fox Sports alluded to the unconventional road Heston traveled to get to such a magnificent achievement:
This has been quite a roller-coaster season for Heston, who has struggled to string together two strong starts since his first three. His no-hitter comes off of a loss to Pittsburgh, when he yielded five earned runs in 3.2 innings. Heston preceded that with 7.1 shutout innings against Atlanta.
There’s no denying Heston has the makeup to be a strong MLB starter. Given that he had only three appearances in the big leagues before 2015, Heston figures to go through more highs and lows, but nothing will quite match what he achieved Tuesday.
San Francisco has proven capable of playing rather well away from home, and improved to 17-12 on the road this season with Tuesday’s win.
With other starters such as Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum still capable of dominating and a veteran in Tim Hudson to serve in a mentor role, there’s reason to believe Heston can learn from his teammates and figure out a way to become more consistent.
And if the Giants can get the most out of their talented pitching rotation, they figure to be a major factor in the playoff picture in a bid to defend the World Series crown.
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