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Our high hopes for an inaugural Citi Field no-hitter were dashed immediately Monday night as Padres’ leadoff hitter Jody Gerut pulled a ball over the right-field fence to make it 7,489 New York Mets games without a no-no.
Not only did Gerut advance our NoNoHitters.com count, but he’ll forever go down in Citi Field history as having the stadium’s first hit, first home run, first RBI and first run scored.
Gerut’s leadoff homer marked the 52nd time a potential Mets no-hitter was broken up by a roundtripper and the 920th time a leadoff hit killed a possible Mets no-no. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat for more details on leadoff no-no killers.)
Monday night’s game was the third in which a Mets home ballpark gave up the chance of an inaugural no-hitter:
- On April 13, 1962, with 12,447 fans watching at the Polo Grounds, Sherman Jones gave up a second-inning infield single to Smoky Burgess to advance our count to 2.
- On April 17, 1964, with 50,312 fans packing Shea Stadium, Willie Stargell led off the second inning with a homer off Jack Fisher to advance the count to 326 New York games without a no-hitter. The Pirates wound up winning the game 4-3.
