RA Dickey's One-Hitter

Just wanted to do a quick post on RA Dickey's one-hitter against the Phillies tonight. What made the game so special was that the only Phillies hitter to get a hit off of Dickey was the opposing pitcher, Cole Hamels. It made me wonder, when was the last time, and how rare is it for a pitcher threw a one-hit, complete game shutout, allowing only a single hit to the opposing pitcher and less than two baserunners?

This table will help us figure it out, but then we need to cross-reference those games with games on a list like this (but for every year, that only includes games in 2010). The second table is all games in which the 9 hitter for an NL team (presumably the pitcher) got at least one hit, but also did not score or drive in any runs (thus eliminating the shutout). So what we are doing in cross-referencing all one-hitter in the NL since 1920 with all games in which an NL pitcher got a hit.

You actually have to go back quite a ways to find the last such occurrence, which was a game on August 18, 2003 between the Rockies and Mets. That day, Steve Trachsel of the Mets (interesting that both today and the last time was by a Mets pitcher) gave up only one hit and two baserunners (the other was on an error), and the only hit was a double by opposing pitcher Chin-hui Tsao of the Rockies.

It would take a lot of research to find out every occurrence of a one-hitter with only the pitcher getting a hit, but it is definitely a rare case. Going back to 1985, there have only been three occurrences, the two above as well as this game on September 21, 1986 (in which Padres pitcher Jimmy Jones threw a perfect game except for one hit he gave up to opposing Astros pitcher Bob Knepper). So tonight's gem by RA Dickey really was a special event.

UPDATE: I have found two more games that had only one hit by the opposing pitcher, one on May 1, 2006 (which would be the most recent one), and one on June 8, 1992. The first game had a hit and three walks, and the second one had a hit and four walks, which is why they did not turn up in my previous searches. Still, only five occurrences in twenty-five years is very rare, so we will probably be waiting awhile for the next one.