1985 Houston Astros season
| 1985 Houston Astros | ||
|---|---|---|
| League | National League | |
| Division | West | |
| Ballpark | The Astrodome | |
| City | Houston, Texas | |
| Record | 83–79 (.512) | |
| Divisional place | 3rd—tied | |
| Owners | John McMullen | |
| General managers | Al Rosen Dick Wagner | |
| Managers | Bob Lillis | |
| Television | KTXH HSE | |
| Radio | KTRH (Gene Elston, Milo Hamilton, Larry Dierker, Jim Durham, Jerry Trupiano) | |
| ||
The 1985 Houston Astros season was the 24th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 21st as the Astros, 24th in the National League (NL), 17th in the NL West division, and 21st at the Astrodome. The Astros entered the season as having tied for second place in the NL West with an 80–82 record and 12 games behind the division-champion and NL pennant-winning San Diego Padres.
Left fielder José Cruz and pitcher Nolan Ryan each represented the Astros at the MLB All-Star Game and played for the National League. This was the second career selection for Cruz and seventh for Ryan.
The Astros concluded with an 83–79 record, tying for third place with San Diego in the NL West, with an 83–79 record and 12 games behind the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.
Offseason
- December 3, 1984: Manuel Lee was drafted from the Astros by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1984 rule 5 draft.[1]
Regular season
Summary
On June 9, Joe Niekro was the winning pitcher after tossing a two-hit shutout versus the San Francisco Giants. The 138th of his career, Niekro took over the lead in franchise history. In spite of the strong effort against the Giants, he had failed in six previous attempts to secure this win.[2]
Nolan Ryan surrendered the only walk-off home run of his career on July 1 at Jack Murphy Stadium. Pitching into extra innings for the first time as Astro with a 5–5 score, Bruce Bochy hit the game-winner in the 10th inning, also his first career walk-off home rum.[3]
On July 11, Ryan's strikeout of Danny Heep of the New York Mets was 4,000th of his career.
On July 27, the Astros lost to the Mets, 16–4, despite not allowing a single earned run in the game.[4]
Season standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 95 | 67 | .586 | — | 48–33 | 47–34 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 89 | 72 | .553 | 5½ | 47–34 | 42–38 |
| 83 | 79 | .512 | 12 | 44–37 | 39–42 | |
| San Diego Padres | 83 | 79 | .512 | 12 | 44–37 | 39–42 |
| Atlanta Braves | 66 | 96 | .407 | 29 | 32–49 | 34–47 |
| San Francisco Giants | 62 | 100 | .383 | 33 | 38–43 | 24–57 |
Record vs. opponents
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | ATL | CHC | CIN | HOU | LAD | MTL | NYM | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | |||||
| Atlanta | — | 5–7 | 7–11 | 8–10 | 5–13 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 10–2 | 6–6 | 7–11 | 10–8 | 3–9 | |||||
| Chicago | 7–5 | — | 5–6 | 5–7 | 5–7 | 7–11 | 4–14 | 13–5 | 13–5 | 8–4 | 6–6 | 4–14 | |||||
| Cincinnati | 11–7 | 6–5 | — | 11–7 | 7–11 | 8–4 | 4–8 | 7–5 | 9–3 | 9–9 | 12–6 | 5–7 | |||||
| 10–8 | 7–5 | 7–11 | — | 6–12 | 6–6 | 4–8 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 12–6 | 15–3 | 6–6 | ||||||
| Los Angeles | 13–5 | 7–5 | 11–7 | 12–6 | — | 7–5 | 7–5 | 4–8 | 8–4 | 8–10 | 11–7 | 7–5 | |||||
| Montreal | 9–3 | 11–7 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 5–7 | — | 9–9 | 8–10 | 9–8 | 5–7 | 7–5 | 11–7 | |||||
| New York | 10–2 | 14–4 | 8–4 | 8–4 | 5–7 | 9–9 | — | 11–7 | 10–8 | 7–5 | 8–4 | 8–10 | |||||
| Philadelphia | 2-10 | 5–13 | 5–7 | 8–4 | 8–4 | 10–8 | 7–11 | — | 11–7 | 5–7 | 6–6 | 8–10 | |||||
| Pittsburgh | 6–6 | 5–13 | 3–9 | 6–6 | 4–8 | 8–9 | 8–10 | 7–11 | — | 4–8 | 3–9 | 3–15 | |||||
| San Diego | 11–7 | 4–8 | 9–9 | 6–12 | 10–8 | 7–5 | 5–7 | 7–5 | 8–4 | — | 12–6 | 4–8 | |||||
| San Francisco | 8–10 | 6–6 | 6–12 | 3–15 | 7–11 | 5–7 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 9–3 | 6–12 | — | 2–10 | |||||
| St. Louis | 9–3 | 14–4 | 7–5 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 7–11 | 10–8 | 10–8 | 15–3 | 8–4 | 10–2 | — | |||||
Notable transactions
- June 3, 1985: Mike Simms was drafted by the Astros in the 6th round of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft.[5]
- June 12, 1985: Brad Gulden was purchased by the Houston Astros from the Cincinnati Reds.[6]
- September 15, 1985: Joe Niekro was traded by the Astros to the New York Yankees for Jim Deshaies and players to be named later. The New York Yankees completed the deal by sending Neder Horta (minors) to the Astros on September 24 and Dody Rather (minors) to the Astros on January 11, 1986.[7]
Roster
| 1985 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 | Mark Bailey | 114 | 332 | 88 | .265 | 10 | 45 |
| 1B | Glenn Davis | 100 | 350 | 95 | .271 | 20 | 64 |
| 2B | Bill Doran | 148 | 578 | 166 | .287 | 14 | 59 |
| SS | Craig Reynolds | 107 | 379 | 103 | .272 | 4 | 32 |
| 3B | Phil Garner | 135 | 463 | 124 | .268 | 6 | 51 |
| LF | José Cruz | 141 | 544 | 163 | .300 | 9 | 79 |
| CF | Kevin Bass | 150 | 539 | 145 | .269 | 16 | 68 |
| RF | Jerry Mumphrey | 130 | 444 | 123 | .277 | 8 | 61 |
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 | 119 | 345 | 93 | .270 | 7 | 45 |
| Dickie Thon | 84 | 251 | 63 | .251 | 6 | 29 |
| Terry Puhl | 57 | 194 | 55 | .284 | 2 | 23 |
| Alan Ashby | 65 | 189 | 53 | .280 | 8 | 25 |
| Jim Pankovits | 75 | 172 | 42 | .244 | 4 | 14 |
| Enos Cabell | 60 | 143 | 35 | .245 | 2 | 14 |
| Harry Spilman | 44 | 66 | 9 | .136 | 1 | 4 |
| Tim Tolman | 31 | 43 | 6 | .140 | 2 | 8 |
| John Mizerock | 15 | 38 | 9 | .237 | 0 | 6 |
| Ty Gainey | 13 | 37 | 6 | .162 | 0 | 0 |
| Germán Rivera | 13 | 36 | 7 | .194 | 0 | 2 |
| Bert Peña | 20 | 29 | 8 | .276 | 0 | 4 |
| Chris Jones | 31 | 25 | 5 | .200 | 0 | 1 |
| Eric Bullock | 18 | 25 | 7 | .280 | 0 | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Knepper | 37 | 241.0 | 15 | 13 | 3.55 | 131 |
| Nolan Ryan | 35 | 232.0 | 10 | 12 | 3.80 | 209 |
| Mike Scott | 36 | 221.2 | 18 | 8 | 3.29 | 137 |
| Joe Niekro | 32 | 213.0 | 9 | 12 | 3.72 | 117 |
| Mark Knudson | 2 | 11.0 | 0 | 2 | 9.00 | 4 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ron Mathis | 23 | 70.0 | 3 | 5 | 6.04 | 34 |
| Jeff Heathcock | 14 | 56.1 | 3 | 1 | 3.36 | 25 |
| Charlie Kerfeld | 11 | 44.1 | 4 | 2 | 4.06 | 30 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Smith | 64 | 9 | 5 | 27 | 2.27 | 40 |
| Frank DiPino | 54 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 4.03 | 49 |
| Bill Dawley | 49 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3.56 | 48 |
| Jeff Calhoun | 44 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2.54 | 47 |
| Julio Solano | 20 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3.48 | 17 |
| Mike Madden | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.26 | 16 |
| Mark Ross | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4.85 | 3 |
| Jim Deshaies | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 2 |
Farm system
References
- ^ Manuel Lee at Baseball Reference
- ^ Schwartzberg, Seth (June 9, 2025). "Today in Astros history - June 9". The Crawfish Boxes. SB Nation. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
- ^ O'Neill, Shawn (July 5, 2025). "Nolan Ryan allowed one walk-off HR: This legendary manager hit it". MLB.com. Retrieved July 5, 2025.
- ^ "Houston Astros at New York Mets box score and play by play". Baseball-Reference.com. July 27, 1985. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
- ^ Mike Simms at Baseball Reference
- ^ "Brad Gulden Stats".
- ^ Jim Deshaies at Baseball Reference