With a 7-0 win over their cross-state rivals from Arlington, the Houston Astros avoided a sweep and snapped a five-game losing streak that started after they beat the Rangers to avoid a sweep last week. That sounds a little sad and depressing for Astros fans and the truth is that it probably is: the biggest thing accomplished by the Astros’ victory last night was notching the club’s eighth win in the month of June, which prevents June 2011 from going down in the annals of Astros history as the worst month in Houston in more than a decade.
Indeed, the Astros have only had two eight-win months since 2000. One was April of last year, in which the ‘Stros only played 22 games because the season began on April 5th. Before that, the last time the Astros had an eight win month was June of 2000, in which Larry Dierker’s crew went 8-19 on their way to a 72-90 finish. Before that, you have to go all the way back to April 1991 to find an eight-win Astro month, and the ‘Stros only played 18 games that April.
In fact, in the entirety of Astro history from April of 1962 through June of 2011, the ‘Stros have only had 20 months with eight wins or fewer and 12 of those came in April, which almost always has fewer games than the other months. Ten of those months with eight wins or fewer came in the 1960s, which were the ‘Stros first years of existence. The Astros have only had fewer than eight wins in a month other than April just twice: September of 1965 (7 wins) and July of their inaugural 1962 season, in which they went 5-24. Essentially, with their win tonight the Astros avoided recording one of their worst months since the earliest days of the franchise.
I know this all seems like I’m just piling on the Astros and I guess I kind of am, so I’ll also make what’s the underlying point here: the Astros have had remarkably few terrible seasons as a franchise. They’ve never lost 100 games in a season, even in their earliest days as an expansion team in an era that was much tougher on expansion clubs than the the present. The Astros began their existence with seven straight 90 loss seasons, since then they’ve only had three (1975, 1991, and 2000).
That’s small consolation now, with this Houston team almost a lock for 90 losses and looking like a pretty solid bet for the century mark. Everyone has terrible years, though, sooner or later. It sort of looks like the Astros are due for one.
Also yesterday: Let be a homer just a teensy bit here: with CC Sabathia’s masterful 13-strikeout shutout of the Brewers and the Pirates 6-2 win over the Blue Jays, the Buccos are just two games back of the Brew Crew in the NL Central on July 1st. Tying things back to the Astros, well, just remember that the Pirates were a 105-loss team last year. In fact, the NL Central is piled high with contenders right now. The Cardinals used a win over the Orioles to pull even with the Brewers and the Reds are tied with the Pirates just two games back. Meanwhile, the Red Sox salvaged a game from the Phillies, and Justin Verlander finally tamed the Mets’ bats.
Today: The long holiday weekend kicks off (well, at least for some of us) with the last of this year’s interleague play. We’ve got a few crosstown battles in Chicago and New York and some matchups with two contenders, including the Cardinals/Rays, Reds/Indians, and Giants/Tigers. Tonight’s probable pitchers are here.
