Of those 23, only two other Mets pitchers threw accomplished the feat without allowing either a hit batsman or a walk — Tom Seaver against the Cubs in 1969 (his near-perfect game of 8 1/3 innings) and Steve Trachsel against the Rockies.

Niese and Seaver are the only pitchers in Mets history to throw a one-baserunner one-hitter (Trachsel’s game also included a Mets error).

– Mark Simon, ESPNNewYork.com.

I have to admit a big Phil Rizzuto WW — “wasn’t watching” — for last night’s game. I went to see Former Roommate Mike‘s unbelievable entry into a cartoon film festival in Tribeca and missed Niese’s gem.

Simon answered something I intended to look up this morning — how many other Mets have thrown one-baserunner games. Though Niese was only a hit away from perfection last night, it’s cool to accomplish a feat that only Tom Seaver had before for the Mets. That Seaver guy was good, it turns out.

The important feat is the lack of walks. Hits will eventually fall in — though with a groundball rate like Niese induced last night, not terribly often. But Niese walked 18 guys in 44 1/3 innings before his stint on the Disabled List and has walked only one in 16 innings since his return.

The timing on either side of the DL stint is probably a coincidence, but here’s hoping the improvement is not. His walk rate is now down to a reasonable 3.0 per nine innings, a level that will help him keep pitch counts low and traffic off the bases, and one he can be expected to maintain, based on his Minor League performance. Perhaps he needed a few Major League starts to earn confidence to pound the strike zone, or maybe watching Ollie Perez pitch so many times taught him the importance of throwing strikes.