1980 Houston Astros season

The 1980 Houston Astros season was the 19th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 16th as the Astros, 19th in the National League (NL), 12th in the NL West division, and 16th at The Astrodome. The Astros entered the season having completed an 89–73 record for second place and 1+1⁄2 games behind the division-champion Cincinnati Reds. At the time, this represented the closest the Astros had ever qualified for the playoffs.

On Opening Day, April 10, J. R. Richard made his fifth consecutive Opening Day start for Houston, who hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers and won, 3–2. On July 4, right-hander Nolan Ryan became the fourth major league hurler to record 3,000 career strikeouts.

Richard and left fielder José Cruz were selected to the MLB All-Star Game; Richard was the starting pitcher for the National League, and this was the first career selection for both players.

After a late collapse in 1979, the Astros completed their scheduled regular season with a record of 92–70, tying them for first place with Los Angeles after having lost three in a row in Los Angeles in the final series of the season. To determine the division champion, the teams played a tie-breaker on October 6, which the Astros won for the first division title and first time in franchise history to qualify for the playoffs. At the time, this also set the club record for wins in one season, surpassing the 89 from the season prior. Houston faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series (NLCS), losing three games to two.

Following the season, The Sporting News recognized general manager Tal Smith as Executive of the Year, and Bill Virdon as Manager of the Year,^[a] the first Houston Astros personnel to win these awards.

• October 12, 1979: Signed pitcher J. R. Richard to a four-year extension.^[1]
• October 26, 1979: Keith Drumright was sent by the Astros to the Kansas City Royals as the player to be named later to conclude the exchange started on April 27, 1979, in which the Astros received George Throop from Kansas City.^[2]
• November 19, 1979: Nolan Ryan was signed as a free agent by the Astros,^[3] for four seasons at $4 million total. Thus, Ryan become baseball's first million-dollar player.^[4]
• January 31, 1980: Joe Morgan was signed as a free agent by the Astros. A reunion for the two sides, Morgan made his major league debut with the Colt .45s in 1963 and patrolled second base for them through the 1971 campaign.^[5]
• February 21, 1980: Frank Riccelli was released by the Astros.^[6]

Opening Day starting lineup^[7][8]

On April 10, the Astros hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers for Opening Day, with J. R. Richard serving as the starting pitcher for the Astros. Leadoff hitter and the very first batter of the season for Houston Terry Puhl cranked a home run in the bottom of the first inning. In the bottom of the second, José Cruz replicated Puhl's feat with a home run leading off, and later that frame, Alan Ashby singled home Art Howe to stake Houston to a 3–0 lead. Meanwhile, Richard (1–0) worked eight innings and surrendered just two hits and two runs—one unearned—while inducing 13 whiffs and departed with a 3–2 lead. Joe Sambito relieved and tossed a perfect ninth to preserve the Astros' victory and earn the save.^[9] This Opening Day start extended Richard's then-club record for starting pitchers to five, which stood until Roy Oswalt took the mound for the 2008 opener.^{[Note 1][10]}

Homerless the year prior, on April 11, Craig Reynolds belted his first of the year on an offering from Don Stanhouse leading off the eighth to ignite a five-run rally. This is enough to topple Los Angeles. Making his major league debut, Dave Smith earned the win in relief.^[11] During the eighth inning rally, Luis Pujols singled in two runs with the bases loaded, while Enos Cabell scored on the same play via an error, and Art Howe followed by doubling in Pujols.^[12]

In his debut as a Houston Astro on April 12, Nolan Ryan slugged a three-run home off Don Sutton of the Dodgers for the first of his major league career. The shot also accounted for half of the runs batted in (RBI) Ryan would accumulate that year. Though the blast gave Houston the lead, it did not hold as the game went all the way to 17 innings before Los Angeles claimed a 6–5 triumph.^[11] On the mount, Ryan went 6 innings, yielded 4 runs, 5 walks, and struck out three. Dave Smith (1–1) took the loss when he surrendered the go-ahead single to Mickey Hatcher that scored Dusty Baker during his fourth inning of work.^[13]

On April 15, Joe Niekro tossed a six-hit complete game victory over the Atlanta Braves, leading a 6–2 Astros win.^[14] His first win of the season, Niekro surrendered no bases on balls while striking out 6.^[15]

Richard fired a one-hitter of the Dodgers on April 19 in a 12-strikeout performance, notching his 13th consecutive triumph against the club. The lone hit surrendered to the Dodgers was an infield single by Reggie Smith during the fourth inning,^[11] while Richard's game score graded at 94. Bob Welch countered Richard nearly pitch-for-pitch, yielding Houston's only two hits in the fourth as well. However, Terry Puhl and César Cedeño both scored, resulting in the only tallies of the contest and 2–0 Astros win.^[16]

Following a stellar month of April, J. R. Richard earned National League (NL) Pitcher of the Month honors. It was also his second consecutive accolade, dating to September at the conclusion of the 1979 season.^[17] During five April starts, Richard went 4–0, 1.67 earned run average (ERA), and induced 48 whiffs over 37+2⁄3 innings pitched (IP). Additionally, he suppressed hitters' success to a .104 batting average against (BAA) while limiting baserunners to a 0.717 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) and no home runs surrendered.^[18]

With a 4–2 win on May 3, Astros manager Bill Virdon earned win number 356 as manager to take over the all-time franchise lead.^{[Note 2][19]} The victory over the St. Louis Cardinals allowed Virdon to surpass Harry Walker, who led the club from 1968 to 1972.^[20]

Following a near-four hour rain delay on May 6 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, the Astros left 8–4 winners over the Expos. José Cruz furnished four runs batted in (RBI) to propel the Astros' victory.^[21]

In a 3–0 shutout of the Chicago Cubs on June 11, Astros starter J. R. Richard extended a scoreless innings streak to 31+2⁄3. The win capped the first-ever homestand sweep for the Astros after having swept 3 games each in series against the San Francisco Giants and Cubs.^[22] Richard's streak broke the franchise record, which stood until September 11, 2008, when Roy Oswalt went to 32+1⁄3 innings after a 6–0 shutout win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.^[23]

Despite battling the flu, on June 16, Nolan Ryan hurled seven one-hit innings before reliever Joe Sambito closed out a 2–0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals' only hit was a double in the third inning. Offensively, José Cruz, drove in both of the Astros' runs.^[24]

Richard yielded his first two home runs of the season on July 3 to the Atlanta Braves—which would also be the final two served of his career^[25]—hence, commencing the season without having surrendered any over the first 110 innings.^[26] Dale Murphy and Chris Chambliss took Richard deep back-to-back with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, for the first since Ray Knight on September 21, 1979.^[b][25][27] The Astros won, 5–3, and Richard obtained his 10th victory of the season, which would be the concluding of his career as well.^[26]

At Riverfront Stadium on July 4, Ryan became the fourth pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts, joining Walter Johnson, Gaylord Perry, and Bob Gibson. During the bottom of the second inning, César Gerónimo of the Cincinnati Reds whiffed on a high inside fastball for the right-hander's historic marker.^[c] However, Cincinnati prevailed, 8–1. Over four innings, Ryan fanned six but walked seven.^[11][28]

Gerónimo was Ryan's third victim of the evening. In the first inning, Ken Griffey Sr. and Dan Driessen whiffed. In the second, Ray Knight worked a base on balls to turn over to Gerónimo. The center fielder fouled off an offering, took a ball, took a strike, then was retired swinging. The game momentarily paused as catcher Alan Ashby presented the ball to Ryan while 37,047 onlookers acknowledged the accomplishment with a standing ovation.^[28]

Ryan concluded the outing with 3,003 strikeouts, but with 1,173 bases on balls. His 13-year career record stood at 172–165.^[28]

J. R. Richard was named the starting pitcher for the National League at the 51st All-Star Game, hosted at Dodger Stadium. Richard became the Astros' first-ever pitcher to start an All-Star Game. He tossed two scoreless innings and fanned three hitters. Richard also navigated nine total batters faced, having surrendered one hit and issued two bases on balls.^[29]

Niekro went 3-for-3 while batting on July 27 to lead a 6–3 triumph over the Montreal Expos and pick up his 11th victory of the season.^[14] Niekro pitched 5 solid innings, with two runs allowed, while Dave Smith picked up with the final four frames with just one unearned allowed to convert his fifth save. Rafael Landestoy tripled, got a stolen base and scored a run to lead the offense.^[30]

While working out at the Astrodome on July 30, J. R. Richard collapsed from stroke. Rushed to Houston Methodist Hospital, surgical intervention saved his life. His distracted teammates dropped the contest, 6–4, later that day to the Philadelphia Phillies. Following recovery, Richard would never regain the coordination required to resume his playing career.^[11] In the midst of his finest campaign at the time of the accident, Richard was leading the league in each of wins, earned run average, strikeouts and shutouts.^[31]

With the contest on August 23 so far having gone scoreless, Niekro entered and took the mound in the 16th inning versus the Chicago Cubs.^[14] In the bottom of the 17th, an intentional base on balls to José Cruz loaded the bases. With two out, Niekro batted and singled in Enos Cabell for the walk-off, 1–0 triumph, while spotting himself his own victory to boost his record to 13–11.^[32]

On September 6, Art Howe's eighth consecutive hit, a two-run single, matched the club record and paced a 9–5 triumph over St. Louis during the first game of a doubleheader.^[33] Staring pitcher Joe Niekro chipped in two hits with a double.^[14] In the nightcap, José Cruz blasted a grand slam, the first of his career, and ninth home run of the season.^[34] Cruz' blast, off John Martin in third inning, ignited the crucial margin for victory in a 6-4 final^[35] for the twinbill sweep which drew the Astros to within one game of the NL West-leading Dodgers. Vern Ruhle, who went the distance for the second game, continued his emergence as a clutch performer in place of J. R. Richard after his stroke to fuel the Astros in the pennant race.^[11]

Cruz blasted an extra innings, walk-off home run on September 10 off Rick Sutcliffe to cap a furious 6–5 final over Los Angeles, pulling the two clubs into a tie for first place in the NL West. The drive redeemed two previous Astros runners who were cut down attempting to score, while Cruz had stoked two rallies in regulation to bring the contest to a 3–3 tie. César Cedeño clustered four hits;^[11] Cruz was 3-for-6 and scored thrice. Nolan Ryan worked the first eight innings for Houston and struck out nine.^[36]

Joe Morgan stung his former club on September 18 with a tie-breaking two-run home run, punctuating a 10–2 beatdown of Cincinnati.^[11] José Cruz also homered off Charlie Liebrandt in the ninth as the Astros ran away with it to highlight a five-run frame. Ken Forsch (12–12) earned the win while Joe Sambito polished off three scoreless frames to sum his 16th save.^[37]

On September 21, Vern Ruhle heaved 7+2⁄3 innings pitched of a no-hit bid to grasp a 5–1 win in San Francisco while reclaiming the division lead from the Dodgers. Jim Wohlford desisted the bid but Ruhle (10–4) could not be halted from polishing off a complete game three-hitter to outduel Vida Blue, and post a game score of 81. Art Howe homered and Gary Woods drove in two for Houston.^[11][38]

Ruhle tossed a crucial four-hit, 2–0 shutout of Cincinnati on September 26 to move Houston to two games ahead of the Dodgers for the division lead. The following day, Niekro teamed with Dave Smith to author yet another 2–0 victory of Cincinnati.^[14] A four-hitter, Niekro improved to 18–12 while Smith hurled the final four outs, including three strikeouts, for his ninth save. Craig Reynolds delivered a 2-RBI double in bottom of fifth for the contest's only tallies. With 7 games remaining, it was Houston's 89th victory of the season,^[39] equaling the prior year's edition for most in franchise history.^[40]

On October 1, Ruhle shot his third consecutive complete game to up his record to 12–4 as Terry Puhl stroked a bases-loaded double to key a 5–2 triumph over Atlanta.^[11] Ruhle outdueled Phil Niekro (15–17), who surrendered four runs on seven hits in seven innings.^[41] Following a 3–2 victory over the Braves on October 2, the Astros accrued one of the largest divisional leads that they had held all season, going up 3 games on Los Angeles prior to voyaging to Dodger Stadium in a rematch for the final series of the regular season.^[42]

However, the Astros lost each of their final three regular-season games to the Dodgers to fall back into a tie for first place in the NL West on the final day of the regular season.^[42] During the regular season finale, Houston built a 3–0 lead through four innings. Los Angeles answered by scoring once each in the in the bottom of the fifth and seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Ron Cey connected off Frank LaCorte for a home run, also scoring Steve Garvey, which gave the Dodgers a 4–3 lead that remained.^[43] Hence, a tie-breaker was scheduled for October 6 as an addendum to the regular season to ultimately determine the division winner as the club who would qualify for the playoffs.^[42]

To attempt to secure their first-ever playoff entrance, the Astros turned to Joe Niekro to start the tie-breaker game on October 6. This additional regular season contest ceded Niekro another opportunity at a personal milestone, as he had concluded the original 162-game gamut with 19 victories. Niekro delivered, leading the Astros to a 7–1 triumph via a complete game six-hitter, while unlocking his 20th win.^[14] First baseman Art Howe led the offense, connected for his 10th home run among three hits while activating four runs batted in (RBI). Craig Reynolds also collected three hits as the Astros mashed 12 hits total.^[44] However, Astros catcher Alan Ashby sustained a rib fracture in a violent collision during the fourth inning with the knee of his counterpart Joe Ferguson, forcing Ashby to miss the National League Championship Series (NLCS).^[11] Hence, the Astros finally claimed both their first division title and first playoff berth.^[14]

The wait was over: during their 19th season in 1980 the Astros qualified for the first-ever playoff tournament in franchise history.^[42] Presaged by their greatest run to date the season prior in 1979, they mounted a then-franchise record 89 wins hallmarked by remarkable achievement by their pitching both collectively and individually, just falling short with a second-place finish. During the 1980 season, though the Astros had spent more days in first place than ever, they never led by more than 3+1⁄2 games^[42] as the Los Angeles Dodgers continually matched the Astros win-for-win with the two clubs swapping and maintaining first and second place at various junctures throughout the season.^[45]

With their 93rd regular-season victory, the Astros established yet another then-club record for wins, having just superseded that achievement the season prior. This record held for just six seasons, until another playoff charge in 1986.^[40]

After going 21–11 in 1979, Joe Niekro followed up with a 20–12 record to became the first Houston Astro to produce back-to-back 20 game-winning seasons.^[46] Niekro augmented his performance at the plate by batting .275 (22-for-80), with 5 doubles, 10 RBI, 4 bases on balls and 18 sacrifice hits, the latter of which ranked second in the league.^[47]

Nolan Ryan led the major leagues in walks (98) to extend his major-league record to a seventh season, and for the first time as a National Leaguer. As a member of the California Angels, Ryan had already broken the American League record with six, from 1972–1974, and 1976–1978.^[3][48]

Left fielder José Cruz was recognized with the Houston Astros' team Most Valuable Player Award (MVP), the second time receiving this honor since his performance during the 1977 campaign. Cruz became the second repeat winner, joining Rusty Staub in 1966 and 1967.^[49]

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

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

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

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; S0 = Strikeouts

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

October 7: Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia

Ken Forsch started the first-ever playoff game in Astros history.^[51]

October 8: Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia

October 10: Astrodome, Houston, Texas

October 11: Astrodome, Houston, Texas

October 12: Astrodome, Houston, Texas

Game 5 capped the series in fitting fashion, with seemingly endless surprises and excitement. The Astros jumped to an early lead in the first on a run-scoring double by José Cruz. Philadelphia bounced back to take the lead on a two-run single by Bob Boone in the second. The Astros saw Luis Pujols and Enos Cabell thrown out at the plate in the second and fifth, but finally broke through to tie the game 2–2 on an unearned run in the sixth, thanks to an error by Philadelphia's less than surehanded left fielder Greg Luzinski.

Houston took what seemed like a solid 5–2 lead in the seventh on an RBI single by Denny Walling, a wild pitch from Phillies reliever Larry Christenson, and a run-scoring triple by Art Howe. A three-run deficit in the eighth inning against Nolan Ryan seemed insurmountable. But the Phillies would not die. They loaded the bases with nobody out on three straight singles, including two infield hits, and then got two runs on a walk to Pete Rose and a groundout by Keith Moreland. An RBI single by Del Unser tied the game 5–5, and then Manny Trillo put the Phillies ahead with a two-run triple.

The Astros promptly came back to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, with Rafael Landestoy and José Cruz each singling in a run. Neither team scored in the ninth, but the Phillies got doubles from Unser and Garry Maddox in the tenth to take an 8–7 lead. Philadelphia's Dick Ruthven retired the Astros in order in the bottom of the tenth, and the Phillies had won their first pennant since 1950. They went on to defeat the Kansas City Royals four games to two in the World Series.

1980 National League Championship Series (3–2): Philadelphia Phillies over Houston Astros

• Associated Press (AP) All-Star—Outfielder:^[53] César Cedeño
• Houston Astros Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award:^[49] José Cruz
• MLB All-Star Game;
  • Starting pitcher^[29]—J. R. Richard
  • Reserve outfielder—José Cruz
• National League (NL) Pitcher of the Month^[17]—April: J. R. Richard
• NL Player of the Week:^[54]—August 24: Joe Sambito
• The Sporting News Executive of the Year:^[55] Tal Smith
• The Sporting News Manager of the Year:^[a] Bill Virdon^[56]
• The Sporting News NL All-Star—Outfielder:^[53] César Cedeño

• Bases on balls (batting): Joe Morgan (93)
• Bases on balls (pitching): Nolan Ryan (98)

• 3,000 strikeout club
• List of Major League Baseball All-Star Game starting pitchers
• List of Major League Baseball franchise postseason streaks

Footnotes

Sources

• 1980 Houston Astros season at Baseball Reference
• 1980 Houston Astros season at baseball almanac