Former Giant Juan Marichal pitched his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but to the best of my knowledge, he was never man enough to snap a bat in half over his knee after striking out as a hitter.

As of late Sunday night, however, Marichal does have one thing in common with the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano: both have no-hit Houston.

A surprisingly short list of the pitchers who, in the last 46 years, have thrown no-no's at either the Astros or the Colt .45's, as the expansion club was known between 1962 and 1964:

Pitcher(s)	Team	Date
Juan Marichal	San Francisco	June 15, 1963
Jim Maloney	Cincinnati	April 30, 1969
F. Cordova (9 IP), R. Rincon (1 IP)	Pittsburgh	July 12, 1997
Carlos Zambrano	Chicago Cubs	Sept. 14, 2008

A footnote...

In the starts immediately following their no-hit efforts v. Houston, here is how Zambrano's three predecessors fared:

Marichal followed his no-hitter with an impressive win (1 ER, 7.2 IP) against the Dodgers; Maloney lasted just 5 innings, though he yielded only one run, in a loss to the Mets; and Cordova, who was no Juan Marichal and not even a Jim Maloney, got bombed, allowing 8 hits and 7 runs in just 2 IP as the Pirates lost to the Reds.

If Zambrano takes his regular turn in the rotation, his next start will be on Friday, at Wrigley Field, against the Cardinals.