Gio Gonzalez has that kind of stuff to throw a no-hitter. And if we said that he was inches away from a no-no, would you be impressed? Well, Gio Gonzalez did just that.

After pitching 7 nearly perfect innings with just 1 walk, he just gave up a line drive single down the first base line that appeared to hit the chalk near the ball girl.  He was as close as you can come to a no-hitter without actually getting it.  Check out the video.  I kind of hoped that the Mets would have gotten another clean basehit so it didn’t feel like he was just so close to a no-hitter, but Gio did even better and sat every other batter down without a hit (1 more walk in the 9th).  At least it wasn’t as bad as Yusmeiro Petit’s blown perfect game last week with 2 outs and full count in the 9th inning.

The hit came from Mets pinch hitter Zach Lutz. If he struck out, he’d be Zach Klutz. And that would also mean that Gio would have thrown the first no hitter in Nationals history.  Instead, this is Gio’s second complete game shut out.  The first time Gio went complete-o was just about one year ago– Aug. 31, 2012, against the Cardinals.  The score in that game was just 1 run better than this one (10-0).

Gonzalez got plenty of run support last night, with the Nats belting 5 homers for all  nine runs. Tyler Moore went solo, Span and Zim went back-to back to start the game, and Werth and Ramos each hit 3-run bombs.

So that brings us to an important question:

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