The Brooklyn Cyclones made a bit of franchise history, with rehabbing Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez in attendance on Tuesday night.
Alvarez, who is currently rehabbing from a torn thumb ligament in April, was the catcher for every nine consecutive no-hitters in the Cyclones’ 3-0 home win over the Aberdeen IronBirds, the first such game in Cyclones history.
Right-handers Dakota Hawkins, Joey Lancellotti and Joshua Corniely combined to pitch nine no-hitter innings and strike out six batters on a memorable night.
Hawkins, who pitched five innings on Tuesday, recalled to The Post that after a few innings, Alvarez approached him asking what was going on.
“Going into the third inning, Alvarez came up to me and said, ‘Hey, it’s a no-hitter today.’ I said, ‘OK, here you go,'” Hawkins said in a phone interview.
The 24-year-old Mets prospect, making his second start of the season for the Cyclones, praised Lancellotti and Cornieri and called the night “special.”
Lancellotti took the mound in the sixth inning, with Cornieri pitching the final three innings.
“In the ninth inning, I thought, ‘We’re three outs away from winning,’ and next thing I know, I’m on the mound celebrating. I’d pitched a no-hitter,” Hawkins said.
Alvarez went 1-for-3 in his first rehab start for the Mets’ High-A affiliate after going 2-for-8 in three rehab games with Double-A Binghamton.
On Tuesday night, the catcher singled to center field in the bottom of the first inning and walked in the bottom of the third.
“He’s a really good hitter,” Hawkins said. “You watch his first or second at-bat, he stares at three balls on the ground, and he just makes a great catch, a great catch, and then he misses the ball and takes a good swing, and I think he ends up walking or something. He’s a really good hitter.”
Hawkins said Tuesday’s no-hitter ranks second among his lifetime baseball memories, with the day he signed with the Mets still being his best, and having a major league catcher guiding him that night was an added bonus.
Not just because Alvarez played in Queens before his injury earlier this year, but because he came through the Mets’ system before making it to the big leagues, appearing in 84 games for the Cyclones in 2021 and setting a franchise record with 22 home runs that season.
“It’s just awesome to be able to come up to the major leagues with a guy who’s in my shoes, a catcher from Brooklyn, who was a catcher in the minor leagues,” Hawkins said. “I get to play at the highest level and he’s really, really awesome. He keeps everything under control and keeps me calm so I can play to the best of my ability, so it’s a great feeling for me.”
Alvarez could return to major league action as soon as next week when the Mets return from London.
He was batting .236 with one home run and eight RBIs before his injury in April.
