Johan!

Mets fans waited 50 years and more than 8,000 games to see this:

Johan Santana pitches Mets’ first no-hitter:

Santana threw the first no-hitter in franchise history Friday, pitching the Mets to an 8-0 win over the Cardinals before a crowd of 27,069. It just took 8,020 games to do it, but the Mets finally got that elusive no-hitter they had been longing for.

… Santana had thrown 121 pitches heading into the ninth inning.

Matt Holiday flew out to shallow centerfield, Allen Craig flew out on a low liner to left that Torres gloved and Santana struck out David Freese swinging on a 3-and-2 slider to end the game, sending the crowd into a frenzy and eliciting a scoreboard message that read “No-Han.”

Santana struck out eight and walked five on 134 pitches. He had become the first Mets pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning, but that paled in comparison to actually etching his name into the record books.

Next up: Johan Vander Meer?