RIP Frank Castillo

Yesterday was a sad day in baseball as we learned that not only had eight-time Gold Glove first baseman George Scott passed away, but former pitcher Frank Castillo drowned on Sunday at the tragically young age of 44.

Matthew Pouliot of Hardball Talk wrote a nice recollection of the journeyman pitcher's finest game:


But let’s go back to 1995 for a moment. On Sept. 25, Castillo was making his next to last start of the Cubs’ abbreviated season. Three weeks earlier, he had pitched a five-hit shutout against the Rockies. But on Sept. 25, facing the Cardinals, he had something even more special in store. With his wife watching on, Castillo took a no-hitter into the bottom of the ninth, losing it only when Bernard Gilkey delivered a triple on a 2-2 fastball with two outs, Sammy Sosa dove for the ball in right field, but came up a bit short.
“It was one of those pitches that as soon as I threw it, I wanted it back,” Castillo told the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan afterwards. “Sammy made a great effort. He almost made it.”

He still pitched a 13-strikeout one-hitter. The fact that the lone knock was a triple must make this one-hitter unique and thanks to the Baseball-Reference Play Index I found that it is. There have been exactly 100 one-hit shutouts since that day (including two from the postseason) and Castillo's is the last in which the hit was a three-bagger. Of the 685 one-hit shutouts (681 reg. season) since 1916, only 11 featured a triple:

Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Pit	Str	GSc	3B	Triple
Frank Castillo	1995-09-25	CHC	STL	W 7-0	9.0	1	0	0	2	13	114	78	96	1	Bernard Gilkey top 9, 2 outs
Danny Darwin	1993-08-18	BOS	CHW	W 5-0	9.0	1	0	0	2	2	94	62	85	1	Dan Pasqua top 8, 1 out
Zane Smith	1991-05-29	PIT	STL	W 6-0	9.0	1	0	0	1	5	89	62	89	1	Jose Oquendo bot 3, 1 out
Teddy Higuera	1987-09-01	MIL	KCR	W 2-0	9.0	1	0	0	2	9			92	1	Ross Jones bot 8, 2 out
Jimmy Jones	1986-09-21	SDP	HOU	W 5-0	9.0	1	0	0	0	5			90	1	Bob Knepper bot 3, 2 out
Terry Leach	1982-10-01	NYM	PHI	W 1-0	10.0	1	0	0	6	7			91	1	Luis Aguayo bot 5, 1 out
Rich Gale	1978-06-13	KCR	TEX	W 5-0	9.0	1	0	0	6	4			83	1	Al Oliver top 7, 2 out
Dennis Eckersley	1977-08-12 (1)	CLE	MIL	W 2-0	9.0	1	0	0	0	8			93	1	Cecil Cooper top 1, 2 out
Jim Hannan	1970-08-17	WSA	KCR	W 7-0	9.0	1	0	0	2	6			89	1	Paul Schaal top 5, 2 out
Bobo Newsom	1942-05-06	WSH	DET	W 7-0	9.0	1	0	0	4	4			85	1	Doc Cramer top 3
Wilbur Cooper	1919-08-08	PIT	BRO	W 3-0	9.0	1	0	0	3	2			84	1	Ivy Olson top 1, 0 out

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/30/2013.

No one was a strike away from a no-hitter like Castillo was, but Danny Darwin and Teddy Higuera took bids into the eighth and Rich Gale took his into the seventh. The 1986 game by Jimmy Jones is notable in that the triple he gave up was to Bob Knepper the opposing pitcher! Terry Leach's game in 1982 was a 10-inning shutout, the last by a Met.

There's no play-by-play data for the Bobo Newsom and Wilbur Cooper games, but I was able to find this Pittsburgh Press report that said when Cramer hit his triple. Also, thanks to parts of The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers showing up on Google Books, I was able to find that the triple hit off Cooper led off the game!


RIP