1998 Houston Astros season

The 1998 Houston Astros season marked their second consecutive trip to the postseason. They won a club-record 102 games (until the 2018 team broke it with 103 wins), the first time in club history with at least 100 wins in a season. The Astros won their second consecutive National League Central title.

1998 Houston Astros
1998 NL Central Champions
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record102–60 (.630)
Divisional place1st
Other information
Owner(s)Drayton McLane, Jr.
General manager(s)Gerry Hunsicker
Manager(s)Larry Dierker
Local televisionKNWS-TV
Fox Sports Southwest
(Bill Brown, Jim Deshaies)
Local radioKILT (AM)
(Milo Hamilton, Alan Ashby)
KXYZ
(Francisco Ernesto Ruiz, Alex Treviño)
< Previous season     Next season >

Offseason
  • December 22, 1997: Rob Butler signed as a Free Agent with the Houston Astros.[1]

Regular season

First baseman Jeff Bagwell hit his first career grand slam while tying a career-high six runs batted in (RBI) against Cincinnati on September 9 in a 13–7 victory. It was his 218th career home run, making his streak the then-longest among active players without a grand slam.[2]

Season standings
NL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
Houston Astros 10260 0.630 — 55–26 47–34
Chicago Cubs 9073 0.552 12½ 51–31 39–42
St. Louis Cardinals 8379 0.512 19 48–34 35–45
Cincinnati Reds 7785 0.475 25 39–42 38–43
Milwaukee Brewers 7488 0.457 28 38–43 36–45
Pittsburgh Pirates 6993 0.426 33 40–40 29–53

Record vs. opponents
1998 National League Records

Sources:
Team ARI ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LAD MIL MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL AL
Arizona —1–85–74–56–66–24–54–86–32–74–52–76–33–95–72–75–8
Atlanta 8–1—3–67–25–37–54–58–17–26–69–38–47–25–47–26–39–7
Chicago 7–56–3—6–57–27–24–74–56–67–24–53–68–35–47–34–75–8
Cincinnati 5–42–75–6—4–59–03–85–46–58–13–64–55–71–112–78–37-6
Colorado 6–63–52–75–4—6–36–56–64–77–23–65–45–45–77–53–64–8
Florida 2–65–72–70–93–6—3–64–50–95–75–76–63–64–50–94–58–8
Houston 5–45–47–48–35–66-3—3–69–27–25–47–29–25–46–35–710–4
Los Angeles 8–41–85–44–56–65–46–3—5–45–43–55–47–55–76–64–58–5
Milwaukee 3–62–76–65–67–49–02–94–5—6–31–84–56–53–65–43–88–6
Montreal 7–26–62–71–82–77–52–74–53–6—8–45–72–74–43–63–66–10
New York 5–43–95–46–36–37–54–55–38–14–8—8–44–54–54–56–39–7
Philadelphia 7-24–86–35–44–56–62–74–55–47–54–8—8–11–82–63–67–9
Pittsburgh 3–62–73–87–54–56–32–95–75–67–25–41–8—5–42–76–56–7
San Diego 9–34–54–511–17–55–44–57–56–34–45–48–14–5—8–46–36–7
San Francisco 7–52–73–77–25–79–03–66–64–56–35–46–27–24–8—7–58–5
St. Louis 7–23–67–43–86–35-47–55–48–36–33–66–35–63–65–7—4–9

Notable Transactions

July 31, 1998: Randy Johnson was traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later, Freddy Garcia, and Carlos Guillén. The Houston Astros sent John Halama (October 1, 1998) to the Seattle Mariners to complete the trade.[3]

Game Log
Legend
 Astros win
 Astros loss
 Postponement
BoldAstros team member
1998 Game Log

Roster
1998 Houston Astros
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 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 Brad Ausmus 128 412 111 .269 6 45
1B Jeff Bagwell 147 540 164 .304 34 111
2B Craig Biggio 160 646 210 .325 20 88
SS Ricky Gutiérrez 141 491 128 .261 2 46
3B Bill Spiers 123 384 105 .273 4 43
LF Moisés Alou 159 584 182 .312 38 124
CF Carl Everett 133 467 138 .296 15 76
RF Derek Bell 156 630 198 .314 22 108

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
Sean Berry 102 299 94 .314 13 52
Richard Hidalgo 74 211 64 .303 7 35
Tony Eusebio 66 182 46 .253 1 36
Tim Bogar 79 156 24 .154 1 8
Dave Clark 93 131 27 .206 0 4
J.R. Phillips 36 58 11 .190 2 9
Jack Howell 24 38 11 .289 1 7
Pete Incaviglia 13 16 2 .125 0 2
Russ Johnson 8 13 3 .231 0 0
Mitch Meluskey 8 8 2 .250 0 0
Ray Montgomery 6 5 2 .400 0 0
Daryle Ward 4 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
Shane Reynolds 35 233.1 19 8 3.51 209
José Lima 33 233.1 16 8 3.70 169
Mike Hampton 32 211.2 11 7 3.36 137
Sean Bergman 31 172 12 9 3.72 100
Randy Johnson 11 84.1 10 1 1.28 116
Pete Schourek 15 80 7 6 4.50 59
John Halama 6 32.1 1 1 5.85 21

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

N/A

Relief pitchers

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Doug Henry 59 8 2 2 3.04 59
Billy Wagner 58 4 3 30 2.70 97
Mike Magnante 48 4 7 2 4.88 39
C.J. Nitkowski 43 3 3 3 3.77 44
Trever Miller 37 2 0 1 3.04 30
Jay Powell 29 3 3 4 2.38 38
Scott Elarton 28 2 1 2 3.32 56
Bob Scanlan 27 0 1 0 3.08 9
Reggie Harris 6 0 0 0 6.00 2
José Cabrera 3 0 0 0 8.31 1
Mike Grzanich 1 0 0 0 18.00 1

National League Divisional Playoffs
Main article: 1998 National League Division Series

Houston Astros vs. San Diego Padres

The Astros season ended by defeat in four games to the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series,[4] including losing two starts against Kevin Brown – one of the league's highest-accomplished pitchers that year[5] – both by a 2–1 score. As the Game 1 starter opposing Randy Johnson, Brown allowed no runs in eight innings and struck out 16 Astros, a career-high, and second to that point in MLB playoff history only to Bob Gibson's 17-strikeout performance in the 1968 World Series. [6] Bagwell, Derek Bell, and Craig Biggio combined for six hits in 51 at bats in this series.[7]

Game Home Score Visitor Score Date Series
1Houston1San Diego2September 291-0 (SD)
2Houston5San Diego4October 11-1
3San Diego2Houston1October 32-1 (SD)
4San Diego6Houston1October 43-1 (SD)

Awards and Records
  • Larry Dierker, National League Manager of the Year

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA New Orleans Zephyrs Pacific Coast League John Tamargo
AA Jackson Generals Texas League Jim Pankovits
A Kissimmee Cobras Florida State League Manny Acta
A Quad Cities River Bandits Midwest League Mike Rojas
A-Short Season Auburn Doubledays New York–Penn League Lyle Yates
Rookie GCL Astros Gulf Coast League Julio Linares

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: New Orleans; LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS: Auburn

References
  1. Rob Butler Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  2. "Bagwell has a career day in 13–7 victory". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. September 9, 1998. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  3. Randy Johnson Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  4. Swydan, Paul (May 17, 2013). "The 1998 Astros were pretty good at hitting". Fangraphs. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  5. Newhan, Ross (October 5, 1998). "Once again, Biggio Bagwell and Bell are wannabes in playoffs". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  6. Newhan, Ross (September 30, 1998). "Powerful Astros are shut down by a Brown out". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  7. Diamos, Jason (October 5, 1998). "Padres defeat Johnson; next up are the Braves". The New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
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