NEW YORK - Tylor Megill and the New York Mets' bullpen kept throwing and throwing, the crowd growing louder with every toss.
A 159-pitch gem, it was.
Megill and four relievers combined on the first no-hitter of Major League Baseball's 2022 season, teaming up to lead the Mets over the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on Friday night.
"Just a really fun team moment," said Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, who homered. "This is one of my all-time highlights, because, like, how often do you see a no-hitter? It's like seeing a white buffalo or a unicorn."
Megill started and was pulled after five innings and 88 pitches. The bullpen took over from there, with Drew Smith, Joely Rodríguez, Seth Lugo and Edwin Díaz completing the second no-hitter in the history of a franchise that first took the field in 1962.
Johan Santana threw the Mets' only previous no-hitter on June 1, 2012, when he struck out eight batters and needed 134 pitches in an 8-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. This was the Mets' 9,588th game, including postseason contests, since becoming an expansion team for the National League six decades ago.
This was the first no-hitter against the Phillies since Josh Beckett pitched one for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014.
According to Baseball-Reference.com, these 159 pitches were the most thrown in an MLB no-hitter. Six pitchers threw 151 in the Houston Astros' no-hitter against the New Yankees in 2003.
"Team game," Megill said. "I'm ecstatic. It's crazy. First one I've been part of."
All the relievers before Díaz said they didn't know they were working on a no-hitter. Rodríguez said he was getting post-pitching treatment when he realized what was happening.
"Ninth inning, one out, I checked the TV and said 'What? Zero?'" Rodriguez said as catcher James McCann exchanged a fist bump with Diaz on a podium in the Mets' interview room. "I said, 'Hey, give me five minutes, I have to go out.'"
With the crowd of 32,416 standing and chanting "Let's go, Mets!" Díaz finished it off in style, striking out Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto in the ninth, all of them swinging.
"You start paying attention about the sixth, seventh inning - you start hearing the crowd getting into it, realizing there's a chance for something special," McCann said. "Especially with multiple guys. If it's with one guy, you're on the same page all night. But trying to get on the same page with a lot of guys, it's definitely special to be able to share it with so many people."
Mets pitchers combined to fan 12 batters and walk six, including Kyle Schwarber three times. He stole second base in the fifth - the only time a Phillie got beyond first base.
"We hit a couple balls hard, but that was about it," said Philadelphia manager Joe Girardi, who said Megill's high pitch count early - he threw 43 in the first two innings - made it seem "like maybe we could get him on the ropes. But we just never did."
Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo made the best defensive play, running to make a diving catch on Jean Segura's sinking liner in right-center field to end the third.
"I didn't really notice until like the sixth inning," Nimmo said. "I looked back to check the count and the score and where I should play, and I saw the zero next to their team. And I was like, 'Oh no, all right, we've got one going.'"
The Mets poured onto the field and mobbed Díaz after the final out as a graphic picturing the five pitchers with the words "BLACK OUT" showed on the scoreboard.
It was the 17th combined no-hitter in MLB history and the first since the Milwaukee Brewers' Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader teamed up to hold Cleveland hitless last Sept. 11. That was part of a season in which there were a record nine no-hitters in the majors.
Last weekend, six Tampa Bay Rays pitchers combined to carry a no-hit bid into the 10th inning of a scoreless game against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox broke up the no-hitter and scored twice in the top of the 10th, but the Rays came back to win 3-2. By official MLB rules, it did not count as a no-hitter because Rays pitchers didn't end the game allowing no hits.
Megill (4-0) struck out five batters and walked three in his 23rd MLB start.
Mets skipper Buck Showalter, who managed a no-hitter for the first time since Jim Abbott's gem for the Yankees against Cleveland in 1993, said Megill "threw close to 90 pitches in five innings, that was plenty. What a job the rest of the guys did against a really good hitting lineup, too. It's fun to watch."
Smith got four outs, Rodriguez accounted for three and Lugo recorded the last two in the eighth before Díaz took over for his fourth save of the year.
Jeff McNeil hit a two-run single in the fifth off Aaron Nola (1-3). Pete Alonso homered with two outs in the sixth.