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1981 Houston Astros season

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1981 Houston Astros
National League West Co-Champions
DivisionWestern Division
BallparkAstrodome
CityHouston, Texas
Record61–49 (.555)
OwnersJohn McMullen
ManagersBill Virdon
TelevisionKRIV
RadioKENR
(Gene Elston, Dewayne Staats, Larry Dierker)
← 1980 Seasons 1982 →

The 1981 Houston Astros season was the 20th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, Texas. The season was divided into two halves because of a players' strike in mid-season. The Astros won the Western Division of the National League in the second half and advanced to the playoffs, which matched the winners of the two halves in a Division Series (the name would be re-introduced fourteen years later). However, they were defeated in five games by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series.

Offseason

  • December 4, 1980: Don Sutton was signed as a free agent by the Astros.[1]
  • December 8, 1980: Chris Bourjos was traded by the San Francisco Giants with Bob Knepper to the Houston Astros for Enos Cabell.[2]
  • March 27, 1981: Julio González was released by the Astros.[3]

Regular season

Season standings

NL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cincinnati Reds 66 42 .611 — 32‍–‍22 34‍–‍20
Los Angeles Dodgers 63 47 .573 4 33‍–‍23 30‍–‍24
Houston Astros 61 49 .555 6 31‍–‍20 30‍–‍29
San Francisco Giants 56 55 .505 11½ 29‍–‍24 27‍–‍31
Atlanta Braves 50 56 .472 15 22‍–‍27 28‍–‍29
San Diego Padres 41 69 .373 26 20‍–‍35 21‍–‍34
NL West
First Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Los Angeles Dodgers 36 21 .632 —
Cincinnati Reds 35 21 .625 1⁄2
Houston Astros 28 29 .491 8
Atlanta Braves 25 29 .463 9+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants 27 32 .458 10
San Diego Padres 23 33 .411 12+1⁄2
NL West
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Houston Astros 33 20 .623 —
Cincinnati Reds 31 21 .596 1+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants 29 23 .558 3+1⁄2
Los Angeles Dodgers 27 26 .509 6
Atlanta Braves 25 27 .481 7+1⁄2
San Diego Padres 18 36 .333 15+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 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 — 3–2–1 6–5 4–8 7–7 3–7 3–3 4–5 2–3 9–6 5–7 4–3
Chicago 2–3–1 — 1–5 1–6 6–4 4–7 5–8–1 2–10 4–10 3–3 5–5 5–4–1
Cincinnati 5–6 5–1 — 8–4 8–8 5–4 7–3 5–2 4–2 10–2 9–5 0–5
Houston 8–4 6–1 4–8 — 4–8 5–2 6–3 4–6 2–4 11–3 9–6 2–4
Los Angeles 7–7 4–6 8–8 8–4 — 5–2 5–1 3–3 5–1 6–5 7–5 5–5
Montreal 7–3 7–4 4–5 2–5 2–5 — 9–3 7–4 10–3 4–2 2–5 6–9
New York 3–3 8–5–1 3–7 3–6 1–5 3–9 — 7–7 3–6–1 2–5 2–4 6–5
Philadelphia 5-4 10–2 2–5 6–4 3–3 4–7 7–7 — 7–5 4–2 4–3 7–6
Pittsburgh 3–2 10–4 2–4 4–2 1–5 3–10 6–3–1 5–7 — 6–4 3–7 3–8
San Diego 6–9 3–3 2–10 3–11 5–6 2–4 5–2 2–4 4–6 — 6–7 3–7
San Francisco 7–5 5–5 5–9 6–9 5–7 5–2 4–2 3–4 7–3 7–6 — 2–3
St. Louis 3–4 4–5–1 5–0 4–2 5–5 9–6 5–6 6–7 8–3 7–3 3–2 —


Notable transactions

  • April 1, 1981: Chris Bourjos was traded by the Houston Astros with cash to the Baltimore Orioles for Kiko Garcia.[2]
  • April 3, 1981: Gary Rajsich was traded by the Astros to the New York Mets for John Csefalvay (minors).[4]
  • April 17, 1981: David Clyde was signed as a free agent by the Astros.[5]
  • June 7, 1981: Joaquín Andújar was traded by the Astros to the St. Louis Cardinals for Tony Scott.[6]
  • June 8, 1981: Eric Bullock was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 1st round (20th pick) of the 1981 amateur draft (Secondary Phase).[7]

Nolan Ryan's 5th No-Hitter

On September 26, 1981, Nolan Ryan no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-0, on national television. The 34-year-old right-hander became the first pitcher to throw five career no-hitters.[8] It had been six years since Ryan's last no-hitter; he pitched for the California Angels for the last of four no-hitters.

Roster

1981 Houston Astros
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

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 Alan Ashby 83 255 69 .271 4 33
1B César Cedeño 82 306 83 .271 5 34
2B Joe Pittman 52 135 38 .281 0 7
SS Craig Reynolds 87 323 84 .260 4 31
3B Art Howe 103 361 107 .296 3 36
LF José Cruz 107 409 109 .267 13 55
CF Tony Scott 55 225 66 .293 2 22
RF Terry Puhl 96 350 88 .251 3 28

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
Denny Walling 65 158 37 .234 5 23
Kiko Garcia 48 136 37 .272 0 15
Luis Pujols 40 117 28 .239 1 14
Phil Garner 31 113 27 .239 0 6
Gary Woods 54 110 23 .209 0 12
Danny Heep 33 96 24 .250 0 11
Dickie Thon 49 95 26 .274 0 3
Rafael Landestoy 35 74 11 .149 0 4
Dave Roberts 27 54 13 .241 1 5
Mike Ivie 19 42 10 .238 0 6
Harry Spilman 28 34 10 .294 0 1
Jeffrey Leonard 7 18 3 .167 0 3
Tim Tolman 4 8 1 .125 0 0
Scott Loucks 10 7 4 .571 0 0
Alan Knicely 3 7 4 .571 2 2
Dave Bergman 6 6 1 .167 1 1
Bert Peña 4 2 1 .500 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
Joe Niekro 24 166.0 9 9 2.82 77
Don Sutton 23 158.2 11 9 2.61 104
Bob Knepper 22 156.2 9 5 2.18 75
Nolan Ryan 21 149.0 11 5 1.69 140
Vern Ruhle 20 102.0 4 6 2.91 39

Other 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
Joaquín Andújar 9 23.2 2 3 4.94 18

Relief pitchers

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

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO
Joe Sambito 49 63.2 5 5 10 1.84 41
Dave Smith 42 75.0 5 3 8 2.76 52
Frank LaCorte 37 42.0 4 2 5 3.64 40
Bobby Sprowl 15 28.2 0 1 0 5.97 18
Billy Smith 10 20.2 1 1 1 3.05 3
Gordie Pladson 2 4.0 0 0 0 9.00 3

1981 National League Division Series

See also: 1981 National League Division Series

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Houston Astros

Los Angeles wins series, 3-2.

Game Score Date
1 Houston 3, Los Angeles 1 October 6
2 Houston 1, Los Angeles 0 (11 innings) October 7
3 Los Angeles 6, Houston 1 October 9
4 Los Angeles 2, Houston 1 October 10
5 Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 October 11

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Tucson Toros Pacific Coast League Jimmy Johnson
AA Columbus Astros Southern League Matt Galante
A Daytona Beach Astros Florida State League Carlos Alfonso
Rookie GCL Astros Blue Gulf Coast League Eric Swanson
Rookie GCL Astros Orange Gulf Coast League Lyle Olsen

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Daytona Beach

References

  1. ^ Don Sutton at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ a b "Chris Bourjos Stats".
  3. ^ Julio González at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Gary Rajsich at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ David Clyde at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Joaquín Andújar at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ "Eric Bullock Stats".
  8. ^ "Big Days in Astros History – September 26, 1981 – Nolan Ryan pitches his fifth no-hitter". AstrosDaily.com. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
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