Rookie Chris Heston pitches his second complete game of the season but this time allows NO HITS and only three baserunners (all via HBP!) and overpowers the Mets for a dominating complete game shutout. Heston is only the third rookie in Giants history to throw a no-hitter (the others were Christy Mathewson and Jeff Tesreau over 100 years ago in New York) and the fourth Giants pitcher to complete the feat since the 2009 season when Jonathan Sanchez smoked the Padres. The Giants now have a no-no in four straight seasons, with Matt Cain's perfecto in 2012 and Tim Lincecum's double against the Padres in 2013 and 2014. Heston's whitewash is the tenth team shutout for 2015 which leads all of baseball. Here's a graphic that tells the story:
Check out the 28 called strikes! Home plate umpire Rob Drake liked what he was seeing. And check out the 14 ground balls--that's Heston at his best.
As far as the offense goes, the Giants did their usual death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts thing to take a 3-0 lead but then added solo bombs by Matt Duffy and Joe Panik for a 5-0 final. Bruce Bochy gets his 700th win as a Giants manager as well, certainly a memorable one.
Tim Hudson tomorrow. GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
14 comments:
Heston looked very sharp from the beginning. The
odd thing with Heston is that when he is good, he
pitches like a pure ace, when he is bad, one has
to wonder, "Does this guy belong in the rotation"?
Great game. Giants seem to play up to the level of
competition.
Yeah, he was killer in this one, plus the other complete game. I think all his dominant quality starts, per PQS, were 5 PQS, seven of them so far. So far, only one of his bad starts were in AT&T, the others were in parks like Colorado, Cincy, I think Pittsburgh, hitter's parks. So I'm leaning towards him being pretty good most of the time, and perhaps he'll learn to not do certain things in the hitter's parks, so as not to blow the game, as I see him as a huge competitor, bringing it to the majors.
Ho hum, another no hitter. Isn't it great to be spoiled?
Hey, let's get excited out there!
A NO-HITTER, DAMMIT!
Wow. Has anyone ever thrown a no hitter and hit 3 batters? I'm guessing not.
I, for one, was super-excited watching that game - what a performance! Great economy of pitches, despite all of the whiffs; plunking 3 guys (it was a unique accomplishment, Zo) - the last one, to lead off the 9th, was classic - no wasted pitches, just get him square with the first one; conserving energy on the basepaths by getting forced at 2nd on a 'base hit' by Aoki in the top of the 8th; his first 2 ML RBI's earlier in the game ... he had it all going! And, for good measure, he did it on Jim Streeter's Birthday! Awesome stuff!!
The factoid I've seen is that Heston's no-no is the only one with no walks and 3 hit batters (there has been two with 2 HBP). Thus I presume there has been no-no's with 3 HBP, but generally would have had some walks as well.
Amazingly, because he screwed up at 2nd base, he went up to Duffy to apologize and poor Matt had been trying his best to ignore him, only to have to speak to him.
Ah, thanks to Alex Pavlovic, I asked him what the exact factoid is, and it is, indeed, most HBP in a no-hitter, no qualifier necessary. Sorry!
Another cool factoid about the no-no: last time a no hitter ended with 3 strikeouts was Sandy Koufax. That is pretty nice company to keep. Also the last time a team got 4 in 4 years was the doggers in the mid sixties. As you may have guessed, Koufax did them all! Sheez, what stud!
I'm sure many MLB fans must be getting sick of the Giants. For example, the Mets have one no hitter EVER! It must have been especially galling to watch their super stud prospect ( a huge, 100 mph throwing, 21 year old genetically engineered beauty ) get knocked around while our 27 year old rookie that was discarded a while back throws a spectacular 98 game score!!!
I have to admit that our offense is much better than I ever expected it to be. When Harvey got ahead I figured we were toast. That guy is good! But we totally dismantled him a few innings later. We look especially tough against flamethrowers, which is good since everybody has one now.
Speaking of which: our flamethrower, Hunter Strickland, looks like a whole new weapon. I know some of you still hold a grudge ( I'm looking at you, Ron ) but I think it is time to forgive. He seems to throw even harder than before and he has a couple more pitches. Right now, I feel like he could set-up and even close, if needed. Is anybody else seeing this too? When Kontos is the last guy in your pen, you know that is a team strength.
I have noticed some studies regarding hitting homers off 95+ MPH pitches, and a number of Giants were on that list, Posey, Pence, Belt, Crawford (Morse was on too, Sandoval). In fact, I think Crawford had more than Pence, if I remember right. So that is evidence that we have hitters who can handle high velocity pitches.
Strickland, when the Giants kept him on the 40-man even though he just had a TJS, was described as a future closer for the Giants, as justification for keeping him on the 40-man and not DFAing him under the assumption that no team will want him given the TJS. The reports from this off-season has noted that Strickland learned from his problems of 2014 playoffs, learning new pitches and new approaches to hitters. Plus, he's now further along from his TJS in 2013. Honestly, I see him taking the reins if/when Casilla falters for any reason.
Kontos has also added pitches as well, he relied solely on his good slider before, but Krukow noted in his radio show this season that Kontos has gone from thrower to pitcher, probably when he got exiled to AAA in 2013-14. Probably learned the same things Strickland has.
The Giants seem to gotten this down to some sort of science, like a factory, churning out these guys, once they get the raw materials that the factory needs (both Kontos and Strickland are from other orgs, Broadway too)
It seems to me, given the small sample size, that having Heston in
our rotation, at league minimum or not, has been better than having
Jon Lester in our rotation, for 195 million or not.
Wow! Good point! Lester has not been doing all that well, at least for the money he is getting. Though a large portion of his 4.25 ERA is Baseball Bad Luck, his FIP is 3.67, not that far from Heston. Still, for, as excellently noted, $195M less.
Technically, though, Peavy is the guy enabled by the non-signing of Lester, Heston came up because of Cain's injury. Still, great point, whether Heston or Vogie.
But I wouldn't bet against Lester for the rest of the season. Part of this was his bad first two starts, he has a 3.65 ERA since then, 60 K's vs. only 18 BB in 61.2 IP. And that's with some bad BABIP still, so his FIP is probably in the low 3's.
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