Since we have no race to follow this year, I was looking at some prior seasons where the Astros were still in the race at this time of the season. The 79 team fell a little short, but they came close and it certainly was an interesting ride.
As someone who likes baseball history and baseball simulation games, I am going to combine both those interests and "replay" the last few games of the 79 season. I'll start with the September 21st game against the Reds. I'm not sure when I'll get to play that game, but here's a quick look at what actually happened in the real life game, and it was a real classic.
******************************************
On September 21, 1979 the Reds came to Houston with a 2.5 game lead on the Astros. With J.R. Richard matched against the Reds' Tom Seaver, it figured to be a low scoring game, and it was. Ray Knight's two run homer in the second gave the Reds a 2-0 lead, The Astros cut the lead with an unearnd run in the 3rd and tied the game on a seventh inning Terry Puhl single that scored Rafael Landestoy.
After giving up the early homer, J.R. started owning the Reds. The Astros couldn't get anything going against Seaver, so the game goes to extra-innings. J.R. stayed in the game and pitched 11 tremendous innings. His pitching line was 11 IP, 2 ER, 7 hits, 1 Walk and 15 strikeouts.
The Astros finally won the game in the 13th when Craig Reynolds scored on a Bruce Bochy single to left. A truly awesome game for the 45000 fans at the Dome!
Here's the box score and play by play from Retrosheet.
As someone who likes baseball history and baseball simulation games, I am going to combine both those interests and "replay" the last few games of the 79 season. I'll start with the September 21st game against the Reds. I'm not sure when I'll get to play that game, but here's a quick look at what actually happened in the real life game, and it was a real classic.
******************************************
On September 21, 1979 the Reds came to Houston with a 2.5 game lead on the Astros. With J.R. Richard matched against the Reds' Tom Seaver, it figured to be a low scoring game, and it was. Ray Knight's two run homer in the second gave the Reds a 2-0 lead, The Astros cut the lead with an unearnd run in the 3rd and tied the game on a seventh inning Terry Puhl single that scored Rafael Landestoy.
After giving up the early homer, J.R. started owning the Reds. The Astros couldn't get anything going against Seaver, so the game goes to extra-innings. J.R. stayed in the game and pitched 11 tremendous innings. His pitching line was 11 IP, 2 ER, 7 hits, 1 Walk and 15 strikeouts.
The Astros finally won the game in the 13th when Craig Reynolds scored on a Bruce Bochy single to left. A truly awesome game for the 45000 fans at the Dome!
Here's the box score and play by play from Retrosheet.
