Aaron Harang
photo by Tim Evearitt
NEW YORK -- Only a high pitch count prevented Aaron Harang from bidding for history on Friday night at Citi Field. But after he'd delivered seven hitless innings, the Braves preserved his gem with a late-inning eruption that allowed them to cruise to a 6-0 win over the Mets.
David Wright's two-out single in the eighth inning ended the Braves' bid to notch the first combined no-hitter since the Astros turned the trick against the Yankees on June 11, 2003. Wright's hit was the only one surrendered by the Braves, who hadn't allowed fewer than two in a game since Julio Teheran and David Carpenter combined to one-hit the Pirates on June 5 of last season.
Atlanta's last combined no-hitter was produced by Kent Mercker, Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena on Sept.
11, 1991.
Harang issued six walks and totaled 121 pitches during his seven hitless innings. After watching his club tally three runs in a four-run eighth, manager Fredi Gonzalez replaced Harang with pinch-hitter Tyler Pastornicky.
Chris Johnson's RBI double off Jon Niese in the second inning plated the game's only run until the Braves erupted in the eighth inning. Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer off Gonzalez Germen, and Dan Uggla's double turned into a third run on a throwing error.
Although the additional cushion gave Gonzalez reason to at least think about letting Harang continue, he opted not to push his veteran pitcher, who has a 0.70 ERA through his first four starts.
Harang started to show some signs of fatigue when he issued a pair of walks during both of his final two innings. He escaped both the sixth and seventh with inning-ending strikeouts.
Harang has now carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning of two of his first four starts this season. In his season debut, in Milwaukee on April 2, he kept the Brewers hitless until Logan Schafer opened the bottom of the seventh inning with a single.
Harang's latest no-hit bid was preserved with some help in the second from Uggla, who ranged to his left to stop Travis d'Arnaud's two-out grounder and then made a quick throw that arrived at first base at around the same time as the Mets' catcher.
Mets manager Terry Collins might have challenged the play had Freeman not made a quick throw to third baseman Johnson, who tagged Lucas Duda to record the "fourth out" that managers are instructing their players to play through in the event that an inning-ending ruling could be reversed by a review.
Johnson, Freeman, Uggla and B.J. Upton all produced multihit totals as the Braves broke out of their recent offensive slumber. Atlanta entered the eighth inning having totaled just two runs in their previous 25 innings.