NEW YORK -- As rookie right-hander Chris Heston led the San Francisco Giants out of the dugout in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday night, the Bush song "Machinehead" -- with the lyrics "breathe in, breathe out" -- blasted out of the Citi Field loudspeakers.

But it was going to take a lot more than some disc jockey gamesmanship to keep Heston from joining the Giants' exclusive, and ever-expanding, club of pitchers who have thrown no-hitters.

Heston made history in his 13th career start Tuesday night, when he capped the first no-hitter of his life by striking out the final three batters he faced in the Giants' 5-0 win over the New York Mets.

Heston, impeccably mixing a changeup and curveball with a 90-mph fastball, struck out 11 and didn't walk anyone in becoming the third Giants rookie to throw a no-hitter and the first major leaguer to do it since Clay Buchholz of the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 1, 2007.

He even helped himself at the plate, where he went 2-for-4 with a two-run single in the fourth.

"I definitely threw more (no-hitters) in the backyard than I have in real life," the 27-year-old Heston said with a grin at a news conference afterward. "To be out there, in that situation, it's really blessed to even have that opportunity."

The Giants get the opportunity on an annual basis these days. Heston's no-hitter is the 17th in franchise history but the fourth in as many seasons and the fifth since July 10, 2009, when left-hander Jonathan Sanchez snapped a 33-year drought by no-hitting the San Diego Padres.

Right-hander Matt Cain -- whose flexor tendon injury in spring training opened up a rotation spot for Heston -- threw a perfect game on June 13, 2012, and right-hander Tim Lincecum threw no-hitters on July 13, 2013, and June 25, 2014.

"It's always great to be a part of history," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who won his 700th game with San Francisco on Tuesday. "Pretty amazing. Really, it's so difficult to do. Anything can happen."

The no-hitter was the third caught by catcher Buster Posey, who was also behind the plate for Cain's perfect game and Lincecum's first no-hitter.

"We've had guys go fifth inning with no hits before," Posey said. "For one reason or another, this one had a little bit of a different feel to it, I think, just the way he was moving the ball to both sides of the plate (and) able to throw his off-speed pretty much in any count he wanted to."

Heston, who was aided by an RBI groundout by center fielder Angel Pagan and solo homers by third baseman Matt Duffy and second baseman Joe Panik, threw 72 of his 110 pitches for strikes. He allowed the Mets to hit just two balls into the outfield and was threatened only twice, both in the eighth inning.

Shortstop Wilmer Flores led off with a hard liner pulled foul down the third base line before he grounded out to first. With two outs, third baseman Eric Campbell hit a hard grounder to shortstop, where Brandon Crawford backhanded the in-between hop and fired to first to get Campbell by a couple steps.

"It wasn't an easy one for sure," Crawford said. "I think that was probably the toughest play of the game. Pretty easy no-hitter, which is pretty hard to do. Usually there's a really big play that saves a hit or maybe some hard line drives right at somebody."

The only barrier between Heston and perfection were the three batters he hit – Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada and first baseman Lucas Duda in a three-pitch span in the fourth, when Heston escaped the jam by getting left fielder Michael Cuddyer to hit into a double play, and catcher Anthony Recker with the first pitch of the ninth.

"I said 'Well, what's going to happen if he hits the first three – do I go get him with the no-hitter?'" Bochy said with a grin.

There would be no such worries for Bochy. With the crowd of 23,155 -- many of whom were spor