1971 Houston Astros season

1971 Houston Astros
1971 Houston Astros
League	National League
Division	West
Ballpark	Astrodome
City	Houston, Texas
Record	79–83 (.488)
Divisional place	4th–tied
Owners	Roy Hofheinz
General managers	Spec Richardson
Managers	Harry Walker
Television	KTRK-TV
Radio	KPRC (AM); (Gene Elston, Loel Passe)
	Seasons

The 1971 Houston Astros season was the tenth season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their seventh as the Astros, tenth in the National League (NL), third in the NL West division, and seventh at The Astrodome. The Astros entered the season having posted a record of 79–83, for fourth place and 23 games behind the division-champion and NL pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds.

Pitcher Larry Dierker made his third Opening Day start for the Astros, who hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 5, and won, 5–2. The Astros' first-round selection in the amateur draft was shortstop Neil Rasmussen, at 12th overall.

Dierker and fellow pitcher Don Wilson both represented the Astros and played for the National League at the MLB All-Star Game. This was second career selection for Dierker and first for Wilson.

The Astros played 75 games that were decided by a one run margin, which is an all-time MLB record. In those games, the Astros performed to a 32–43 (.427) record.

The Astros concluded the season with a record of 79–83—replicating their performance from the year prior—while maintaining fourth place in the NL West, this time, tying with Cincinnati for 11 games behind the division-champion San Francisco Giants.

Third baseman Doug Rader won his second career Gold Glove Award.

Offseason

Transactions

January 13, 1971: Doug Konieczny was drafted by the Astros in the 1st round (4th pick) of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft Secondary Phase.^[1]

Exhibition play

The Astrodome hosted a 15-inning, exhibition "tripleheader" between Houston, the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees. For the first five-inning contest, the Astros tripped the Yankees, 2–1. During the middle five, the Twins toppled the Yankees, 4–1, prior to getting ripped by the Astros during the last five frames, 5–3.^[2]

Regular season

Summary

April

Opening Day starting lineup^[3]^[4]

28	César Cedeño	CF
18	Joe Morgan	2B
24	Jimmy Wynn	RF
27	Bob Watson	LF
11	Denis Menke	1B
12	Doug Rader	3B
7	Johnny Edwards	C
15	Roger Metzger	SS
49	Larry Dierker	P
Venue:	Astrodome • HOU 5,	LAD 2

July

The Astros exploded for a season-high 18 runs on July 7,^[5] en route to an 18–4 drubbing of the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park. ^[6] Jimmy Wynn became the first player to attain 1,000 hits as a member the Houston Astros, also the 1,000th hit of his career,^[7]^[8] with a seventh inning double off left-hander Steve Hamilton. During an all-round memorable day, Wynn was 2-for-4 with 2 runs batted in (RBI), 2 runs scored, one stolen base and one base on balls.^[6]

September

On September 2 at the Astrodome, César Cedeño stepped to the plate to face Claude Osteen with the bases loaded in the fifth in a 3–2 deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cedeño hit a blooper to shallow right field between Bill Buckner and Jim Lefebvre who collided while attempting to make the catch, and the ball dribbled into the corner. Meanwhile, the bases cleared ahead of Cedeño, who raced home for the 170 feet (52 m) Inside-the-park grand slam.^[2] His first career grand slam, Cedeño had blasted his first career major league home run off Osteen on July 6 of the prior year.^[9] On the day, Cedeño was 3-for-4 with 4 RBI and a double. Astros starter Don Wilson (13–8) went the distance to pick up the victory, a 9–3 score.^[10]

Strikeout record in a doubleheader: J. R. Richard's 15-strikeout debut

Astros pitching fired a record performance on September 5 during a doubleheader at Candlestick Park.^[2] In the opener, Jack Billingham tossed a five-hit, 1–0 shutout with 11 strikeouts and a game score of 86 over the Gitants.^[11] Making his major league debut during the second game on September 5, J. R. Richard^[2] struck out 15 Giants on the way to firing another complete game. Richard's final strikeout victim was Hal Lanier, also the final out of the contest, to finish off a 5–3 Astros triumph. This contest garnered a 75 game score for Richard.^[12] His 15-strikeout effort remained his permanent career-high,^[a]^[13] while tying a record for a Major League debut first established in 1954 by Karl Spooner of the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[14] The 26 combined strikeouts by Billingham and Richard during the twinbill set a new MLB record.^[2]

Performance overview

The Astros played 75 games that were decided by a one run margin, which is an all-time MLB record. In those games, the team had a record of 32–43.^[15]

Third baseman Doug Rader, who won his second consecutive Gold Glove Award, became the first Astro to win more than once.^[16]

As the Astrodome was reputed for suppressing the home run,^[17] three Astros combined to lead the league in extra-base hit categories. With 40 doubles, César Cedeño led the major leagues. He joined Rusty Staub in 1967 as the second Astro to lead both theNatioal League in doubles as well as all of baseball.^[18] Meanwhile, Houston's first-ever triples leaders—Roger Metzger and Joe Morgan jointly led the major leagues with 11 each—forged a three-way tie with Freddie Patek of the Kansas City Royals in the American League.^[19]

Don Wilson became the first Astros pitcher to lead the NL in hits per nine innings (6.549 H/9).^[20]

Season standings

NL West
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
San Francisco Giants	90	72	.556	—	51‍–‍30	39‍–‍42
Los Angeles Dodgers	89	73	.549	1	42‍–‍39	47‍–‍34
Atlanta Braves	82	80	.506	8	43‍–‍39	39‍–‍41
Cincinnati Reds	79	83	.488	11	46‍–‍35	33‍–‍48
Houston Astros	79	83	.488	11	39‍–‍42	40‍–‍41
San Diego Padres	61	100	.379	28½	33‍–‍48	28‍–‍52

Record vs. opponents

1971 National League record Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team	ATL	CHC	CIN	HOU	LAD	MON	NYM	PHI	PIT	SD	SF	STL
Atlanta	—	5–7	9–9	9–9	9–9	7–5	7–5	8–4	4–8	11–7	7–11	6–6
Chicago	7–5	—	6–6	5–7	8–4	8–10	11–7	11–7	6–12	9–3	3–9	9–9
Cincinnati	9–9	6–6	—	5–13	7–11	7–5	8–4	5–7	5–7	10–8	9–9	8–4
Houston	9–9	7–5	13–5	—	8–10	4–8	5–7	8–4	4–8	10–8	9–9	2–10
Los Angeles	9–9	4–8	11–7	10–8	—	8–4	5–7	7–5	4–8	13–5	12–6	6–6
Montreal	5–7	10–8	5–7	8–4	4–8	—	9–9	6–12	7–11	6–5	7–5	4–14
New York	5–7	7–11	4–8	7–5	7–5	9–9	—	13–5	10–8	7–5	4–8	10–8
Philadelphia	4-8	7–11	2–10	3–9	5–7	6–10	5–13	—	6–12	4–8	6–6	7–11
Pittsburgh	8–4	12–6	7–5	8–4	8–4	11–7	8–10	12–6	—	9–3	3–9	11–7
San Diego	7–11	3–9	8–10	8–10	5–13	5–6	5–7	8–4	3–9	—	5–13	4–8
San Francisco	11–7	9–3	9–9	9–9	6–12	5–7	8–4	6–6	9–3	13–5	—	5–7
St. Louis	6–6	9–9	4–8	10–2	6–6	14–4	8–10	11–7	7–11	8–4	7–5	—

Notable transactions

June 8, 1971: 1971 Major League Baseball draft
- Paul Siebert was drafted by the Astros in the 3rd round.^[21]
- Rich Troedson was drafted by the Astros in the 1st round (8th pick) of the Secondary Phase, but did not sign.^[22]

Roster

1971 Houston Astros

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Manager

25 Harry Walker

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Johnny Edwards	106	317	74	.233	1	23
1B	Denis Menke	146	475	117	.246	1	43
2B	Joe Morgan	160	583	149	.256	13	56
SS	Roger Metzger	150	562	132	.235	0	26
3B	Doug Rader	135	484	118	.244	12	56
LF	Bob Watson	129	468	135	.288	9	67
CF	César Cedeño	161	611	161	.264	10	81
RF	Jimmy Wynn	123	404	82	.203	7	45

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Jesús Alou	122	433	121	.279	2	40
Jack Hiatt	69	174	48	.276	1	16
John Mayberry	46	137	25	.182	7	14
Rich Chiles	67	119	27	.227	2	15
César Gerónimo	94	82	18	.220	1	6
Norm Miller	45	74	19	.257	2	10
Larry Howard	24	64	15	.234	2	14
Marty Martínez	32	62	16	.258	0	4
Ray Busse	10	34	5	.147	0	4
Derrel Thomas	5	5	0	.000	0	0
Jay Schlueter	7	3	1	.333	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Don Wilson	35	268.0	16	10	2.45	180
Jack Billingham	33	228.1	10	16	3.39	139
Ken Forsch	33	188.1	8	8	2.53	131
Larry Dierker	24	159.0	12	6	2.72	91
Wade Blasingame	30	158.1	9	11	4.60	93
Ron Cook	5	25.2	0	4	4.91	10
J.R. Richard	4	21.0	2	1	3.43	29

Other pitchers