Quick question: while no Mets pitcher threw a true, nine-inning shutout with the Mets in 2007, who came the closest? Give yourself a gold star and a cookie if you guessed Jorge Sosa, who threw eight phenomenal innings on June 8th against the Detroit Tigers. John Maine and Tom Glavine both threw “shutouts” in rain-shortened games, but Sosa was the only Met to go eight innings without giving up a run this past season.

If Sosa had gone that final inning, it might have been one of the more unlikely shutouts in team history; Sosa has thrown one career shutout, back in 2003 when he was with Tampa Bay. My guess is that at the end of his career, few will remember Sosa as a paragon of excellence in the field of starting pitching.

However, this did get me thinking: how many guys have thrown the only shutout of their career while in a Mets uniform?

As it so happens, fourteen pitchers have thrown a complete-game shutout just once in their careers, that coming as a Met. If you refuse to count Maine’s five-inning game that number expands to fifteen. Most of them have been rather recent, for a couple of reasons. First, pitchers go the distance far less often than they used to. Since 1990, the Mets have only had two pitchers attain more than two shutouts in a season: Frank Viola in 1990 (3) and David Cone in 1992 (5). Second, the Mets’ starting rotations were very stable for large stretches of the 70’s and 80’s. The early-to-mid 70’s featured stalwarts like Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Gary Gentry, and Craig Swann. Meanwhile, the mid-to-late eighties’ rotations had Dwight Gooden, Bob Ojeda, Sid Fernandez, Ron Darling, David Cone, and Frank Viola.

Anyway, here are the one-hit wonders in chronological order.

Grover Powell

Powell’s something of a sad story. He had a tremendous season as a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, throwing smoke and leading all college pitchers with 166 strikeouts, but he was kicked off the baseball team for reasons that can only be described as “immaturity.” The Mets, eager for young talent, signed him in 1962 despite this. He didn’t really pitch all that well in the minors, but the team needed a pitcher or ten, so they called him up anyway, starting out in the ‘pen. On August 20th, he made his first start and threw a four-hit shutout against the Phillies. He was on his way to a second during his next start in Pittsburgh, when he was hit in the face by a line drive off the bat of Donn Clendenon. He was okay, but made only two starts after that, looked shaken, and bounced around the minors for the rest of his career. He died from cancer in 1985.

Tom Parsons

Parsons was a 6’7” giant, who looked like he should have thrown hard. He didn’t, though, and when the Pirates figured it out, they tried their darnedest to get rid of him, failing to trade him to Houston before selling him to the Mets in September of 1964. Still, he had pitched all right in the minors, even if he didn’t impress too many, and the Mets put him in the rotation almost right away. The next season, the Mets inserted him into the bullpen before moving him to the rotation in late June. On July 5th, he threw his shutout in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cubs. Unfortunately, Parsons, prone to the homerun, wasn’t all that good, as he proceeded to prove over the rest of 1965. The Mets wound up trading him to the Astros for Jerry Grote; he never pitched in the bigs again.

Hank Webb

Like Powell, Webb was another well-regarded prospect who was supposed to fit in the back of a rotation that included Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack. Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen due to an inability to throw for strikes. It all came together, however, for one start on August 25th, 1975 against the Padres, when Webb showed just what he could do when he didn’t walk anyone, allowing just five hits over nine frames. He was traded to the Dodgers in 1977.

Tug McGraw

One of the most beloved pitchers in Mets history. After 1966, Tug was almost entirely a reliever, but the Mets would give him the occasional spot start when they needed someone in a pinch; this was the case in late August/early September 1974, his last season with the team. On September 1st, he threw a five-hit shutout against the Braves, the only one of his 19-year career. McGraw represents a different category of one-shutout pitcher than we’ve seen so far: career relievers who made good in one of their rare starts. Cancer claimed his life, too.

Mike Bruhert

Probably best known for being the son-in-law of Gil Hodges. Bruhert was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Mets, likely due to his local ties (he was from Jamaica, Queens). In 1978, at the age of 27, the Mets decided to take a chance on him and placed him in the rotation where he made 22 starts. Most of them weren’t very good, but he threw his shutout on September 17th against the Phillies. In 1979, he was included in a trade to the Rangers for Dock Ellis.

Mark Bomback

Bomback is really in the same category of pitcher as Bruhert; guys who just weren’t very good who got lucky enough to have one memorable game. The 27-year-old Bomback was brought up in 1980, his only season with the team, and he got off to a great start, going seven strong in his first start with the team. In his second, he pitched a shutout against Phillies despite walking six batters. Control was normally a big part of his game, which made the shutout even more surprising. He started his Mets career 9-3, but finished up the season 10-8 with a 4.09 ERA. He wound up being traded to the Blue Jays for…

Charlie Puleo

Puleo’s the third straight 27-year-old rookie to make this list. He didn’t have a great arm, but like Bomback in 1980, Puleo was really one of the team’s better starters in his only full year with the team, 1982, even if he wasn’t good. His shutout came May 11th against the Padres, a four-hitter. He wasn’t that effective after that, even losing his starting role by the time September rolled around. He’s best known as being included in the trade that brought Seaver back to the Mets. He bounced around until 1989.

Pete Schourek

Schourek was a very talented young southpaw, blessed with a low-90’s fastball and a good curve, but he lacked consistency with the Mets. He found it somewhat later in his career, but injuries made it difficult for him to get much going; for one glorious season, he went 18-7 with a 3.22 ERA for the Reds in 1995, finishing second in the Cy Young balloting. However, his one and only career shutout in 176 starts came as a Met, in just his fourth career start. On September 10th, 1991 Schourek threw a one-hitter against a mediocre Expos offense.

Eric Hillman

A very similar pitcher to Tom Parsons, Hillman was a soft-tossing giant of a man, standing at 6’10” tall. The Mets took a chance on him late in the 1987 draft, hoping he’d gain some velocity, as his frame suggested. It never happened, so he didn’t reach the majors until 1992, when he was 26. In 1993, he was roughly league average, offering a glimmer of hope to a team that lost 103 games. On July 25th of that year, he threw his only Major League shutout, a walk-free five-hitter against the Dodgers. Bobby Valentine wound up taking him to Japan in 1995 after a terrible 1994, where he was very successful before tearing his rotator cuff in 1997.

Jason Jacome

Yet another failed Mets prospect who got off to a great start, elevating expectations. His shutout came in his second big league start, on July 7th 1994 against the Dodgers. He didn’t have great stuff, being mostly a junk ball pitcher, and Dallas Green thought he had no confidence, but he did manage to bounce around for a number of years, retiring after 2004.

Jason Isringhausen

This is the only game I was actually present for. Isringhausen was, of course, a member of Generation K, the epitome of the saying “There Is No Such Thing as a Pitching Prospect.” Izzy was overused tremendously his first few years as a pro, and it showed in 1996 when he went 6-14 with a 4.77 ERA after a fantastic rookie campaign in 1995. His one and only shutout (June 9th, against the Marlins) was the only bright spot of that dismal 1996 campaign, after which he promptly got repeatedly injured. The Mets traded him to the A’s in a terrible trade that netted “closer” Billy Taylor. The A’s made him their closer, a role at which he’s been highly successful.

Armando Reynoso

Along with Schourek, he’s the only guy here who had a career of any significant length as a starter. A sinkerballer, Reynoso was one of the only pitchers to be successful in Colorado during the organization’s infancy. However, health and durability were always a question for the short righty; it makes sense that his one and only career shutout in 186 starts came as a Met on June 5th, 1997, when he was 31. An underrated pitcher for much of his career, who wasn’t all he could be due to injuries.

Aaron Heilman

Heilman’s story is still being written, but it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll ever get another shutout, with his conversion to relief looking more permanent everyday. At least it was a good one, a one-hitter against the Marlins on April 15th, 2005, shortly before being sent to the bullpen. Fits in a category with McGraw and Izzy as solid pitchers who weren’t given the chance to get more than one shutout.

Alay Soler

I won’t go into too much with Soler, who could possibly still add another, unlikely as that is. He was mostly overmatched in the bigs and seemed to be in the minors, too (6.00 ERA for Double-A Altoona in Pittsburgh’s farm system in 2007). Soler did have his one shutout, a great outing against Arizona in June of 2006.

Mets with two career shutouts: Dennis Ribant, Ed Lynch, Dave Mlicki, Kris Benson, John Maine, Oliver Perez. Only Ribant and Maine have thrown both with the Mets.