Chris Heston's no-hitter, now with lasers and stats

Chris Heston threw a no-hitter on Tuesday night. Does that seem weird to you? It feels weird to type. In just the 13th start of his career, Heston did what Greg Maddux or Roger Clemens never could. If that doesn't give you the giggles, you're dead inside.

A pair of articles are out that help us appreciate the no-hitter even more. The first is from MLB.com's Mike Petriello, who uses the new StatCast technology to dig a little deeper into the accomplishment.

There's perhaps no better way to explain just how effective Chris Heston was in throwing his own no-hitter in Tuesday night's 5-0 win over the Mets than to realize that nothing like that ever really came close to happening. The Mets struck out 11 times, and when they did put the ball in play they averaged just 85.27 mph in exit velocity, per Statcast™. Not once did a Mets batted ball top 100 mph. It's not that Heston's defense wasn't there when he needed it to be; it's that he rarely needed it to be.

Petriello is a Dodgers fan, mind you. That's why he snuck this in.

The 6-foot-4 Heston adds an average of 1.35 mph to his two-seamer every time he lets it go, thanks to an average extension of 6.66 feet.

Tommy Lasorda's face has an average extension of 666 feet, so whatever.

Over at ESPN, the Stats & Information crew has a nice look at the accomplishment, breaking down the movement of his best pitch:

Heston generated 18 outs with (his sinker). He averaged more movement on his sinker (7.8 inches) in this start than in any other start this season.

We know that Heston's sinker can move, but we've never seen it quite like Tuesday night. My favorite part of that post was the visual that showed just how impossible that final strike would have been to hit:

I didn't even think it was a questionable strike at the time, but I was probably just caught up in the magic. If you're looking for more information about that strike zone, though, note that Buster Posey is a delightful cheater most of the time, and that's how the Giants are even contending.

Here's some hopefully helpful info on Buster Posey & the strike zone in Heston's no-hitter, based on @PitchInfo data. pic.twitter.com/uGKQussotG

— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) June 10, 2015

Let us have a three-year moratorium on the words "Posey" and "third base", please. Unless he hits a triple. So, yeah, three years should do it.

Finally, we have Ryan Dempster and old friend Mark DeRosa breaking down the pitch selection of the no-hitter. It's worth a watch, especially because they talk about the part where Heston doesn't allow a hit:

What a night. The best part was probably that I was so tired by the end, I knew I couldn't stay awake for two hours to watch the DVR'd Warriors game, so I went straight for the Internet spoilers and, well, thank you Chris Heston, for giving me a rebate on the hours I would have spent on that.

More importantly, Chris Heston threw a no-hitter. My goodness.