Adam Hunger – USATODAY Sports
We’ve all known for quite some time that the New York Mets have had offensive problems, but the team took its woes to another level on Tuesday night by being no-hit by Chris Heston of the San Francisco Giants. In a season that’s been full of struggles, slumps, and AAA-style lineups due to injuries, the Mets’ offense may have just hit rock bottom, since they obviously didn’t hit anything else on Tuesday night.
To be fair, Heston deserves all the credit in the world. Outside of three hit batters, he was flawless; he threw strikes all night and executed his pitchers nearly to perfection. But as an unheralded rookie making his 13th career start who entered the game with a 4.29 ERA after failing to complete four innings in his last start, Heston is one of the last players anyone would expect to pitch a no-hitter. Even Giants’ pitching coach Dave Righetti looked shocked after the game that Heston had pulled it off. That’s where the ineptitude of the Mets’ offense comes into play.
Obviously, the Mets are missing three of their best offensive players in David Wright, Travis d’Arnaud, and Daniel Murphy. But that is not a valid excuse for being no-hit by Heston or anybody else. With established veterans like Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer, as well as quality major league players like Lucas Duda and Juan Lagares, even if the Mets aren’t lighting up the scoreboard, they should not be going hitless over nine innings. This no hitter sums up the failures by the Mets’ established hitters to step up in the wake of the team’s injuries.
In the grand scheme of things, even if the Mets were able to get one or two hits against Heston, they were never going to win this game. Also, against all logic, the Mets are still clinging to a slim half-game lead in the NL East. But being no hit is the culmination of the Mets’ offensive woes over the past two months, and signals that the hitters in the Mets’ lineup, both young and old, are not getting the job done. Being no-hit by an unproven rookie is undeniable proof that the Mets need to find a source of offense that’s not currently on their roster, because they’ve officially hit rock bottom.
Bryan Zarpentine is a New York Mets writer at www.RantSports.com. Like him on Facebook, follow him on twitter @BZarp and add him on Google.
