2011 Houston Astros season

The 2011 Houston Astros season was the 50th season for the Major League Baseball franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 47th as the Astros, 50th in the National League, 18th in the NL Central division, and 12th at Minute Maid Park. The Astros entered the season as having finished in fourth place in the NL Central with 76–86 record and 15 games behind the division-champion Cincinnati Reds.
The Astros commenced the season on April 1 at Citizens Bank Park, when pitcher Brett Myers made the Opening Day start for Houston, but were defeated by the [2011 2010 Philadelphia Phillies season|Philadelphia Phillies season|Philadelphia Phillies], 5–4. On May 16, the Astros announced a sale of the team to group of investors led by Jim Crane. In the amateur draft, the Astros' first round selection was outfielder George Springer at 11th overall, and subsequent picks included pitcher Adrian Houser in the second round, pitcher Nick Tropeano in the fifth round, and third baseman Matt Duffy in the 20th round.
Right fielder Hunter Pence was selected to the MLB All-Star Game and played for the National League, the second selection of his career. On August 16, Brian Bogusevic hit the 26th ultimate grand slam in major league history.
Houston concluded the 2011 season with a 56–106 record and in last place, 40 games behind the division-champion Milwaukee Brewers, and worst record in the major leagues. This was the first time in the franchise's 50-year history that they had lost 100 games in a single season, surpassing the record of 97 jointly held by the 1965, 1975, and 1991 teams, and was surpassed again the following season. The 40 games behind first place at the time represented the second-most in franchise history to the 1975 club.

Regular season

Summary

April

;Opening Day starting lineup
Opening Day for the 2011 season represented the first since 2002 that someone not named Roy Oswalt took the hill for the Astros, which was Wade Miller that year. Following his club-record eighth consecutive Opening Day start in 2010, Oswalt continued his usual excellent pitching and was sent to Philadelphia in a trade-deadline deal in July to give him the opportunity to pitch for a playoff contender.
Following 11 magnificent seasons slugging his into one of the most accomplished hitters in franchise history, on April 26, Lance Berkman made his first return to Minute Maid Park as a visitor. Now a St. Louis Cardinal, Berkman received mainly applause. In the ninth inning, he ripped a go-ahead double, only to see the home team mount a comeback and win in it the bottom of the ninth, 6–5.

May

The Astros announced on May 16 the sale of their team to a group of investors headed by Jim Crane for the price of $680 million. The Astros dropped a contest to the Atlanta Braves, 3–2, with Houston's record slipping to 15–26, worst in the National League. This date corresponded the approval of another sale of the team which took place in 1979.
Starting May 19 at Busch Stadium, outfielder Hunter Pence struck a single to left field off Kyle McClellan to launch a 23-game hitting streak and energize one of the dreariest seasons in club annals. His streak continued through a June 13th victory over Atlanta. Though he struggled with lower back pain, the All-Star batted.406 with 19 runs scored, seven doubles, one triple, four home runs, and 19 batted in. The Astros posted a record of during Pence's streak to play above their season average. The seventh hitting streak in club history to span at least 23 bouts, Pence thumped for the longest since Willy Taveras hit in a club-record 30 successive from July 27–August 27, 2006, while tying for fifth in the major leagues on the season.
Jordan Lyles made his major league debut on May 31, hurling seven clean innings over the Chicago Cubs before his own error put him in line for the loss. The team proceeded to back him up, scoring six runs in the ninth to set up a 7–3 Astros victory.

July

On July 19, the Astros promoted second base prospect Jose Altuve to the major leagues, who started for the first time the following day versus the Washington Nationals. Going 1-for-5 in his debut, Altuve singled off Tyler Clippard in the 9th inning for his first major league hit. After authoring a hitting streak that accounted for each of his first seven games, on July 27, 2011, Altuve tied an Astros franchise record with Russ Johnson for most successive games with a hit to start a career with 7, who accomplished his in 1997.
On July 25, Carlos Lee smashed his seventh grand slam as a member of the Houston Astros to establish a club record, which surpassed Bob Aspromonte and Jeff Bagwell, with six each. Lee's blast was off a P. J. Walters offering, off whom Lee had previously swatted a grand on July 21, 2009 for a unique record. This pairing of Lee—Walters made them the only batter—pitcher combination with more than one plate appearance where each had resulted in a grand slam. It was also Lee's 16th career grand slam, placing him ninth all-time. Altuve smoked his first two major league doubles, both off Kyle McClellan. However, Yadier Molina and Colby Rasmus went deep for the Redbirds, and Molina also doubled for an easy 10–5 Cardinals victory.
The Astros called up prospect J. D. Martinez on July 29 to replace Pence, who had been traded to the Philadelphia. Martinez started 52 of the remaining 55 games in the outfield for Houston.

August

On August 3, J. D. Martinez connected for his first major league home run, deep to off Dontrelle Willis during the bottom of the first at Minute Maid Park to also score Jason Bourgeois. Martinez also doubled and totaled three hits and four RBI to lead a 5–4 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds.
Brian Bogusevic crushed his first major league home run on August 9, off Jason Marquis of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Two batters prior to Bogusevic, J. D. Martinez had also homered. Carlos Lee walked, and Bogusevic followed with a deep drive to center field, increasing the Astros lead to 4–1. However, the Diamondbacks rallied. With two outs, the bases loaded in the eighth and Arizona leading, 9–8, right-hander David Hernandez stuck out Bogusevic swinging. The Diamondbacks won, 11–9.

Brian Bogusevic' ultimate grand slam

On August 16, pinch hitter Brian Bogusevic hit the 26th ultimate grand slam in major league history, and first in franchise history, classified as a bases-loaded, walk-off grand slam with the batter's team trailing by three runs in the ninth inning or later, signifying that the batter is also the winning and walk-off run. Bogusevic connected off Chicago Cubs reliever Carlos Mármol for a 6–5 Houston victory. This was the Astros' lone walk-off homer in 2011. His second major league home run, this was the first and only of either a grand slam or walk-off home run of Bogusevic' career.
During the bottom of the seventh inning, catcher Humberto Quintero swatted a sacrifice fly that scored JB Shuck and reduced the Cubs' lead to 4–2. The Cubs regained the run in the top of the eighth when Aramis Ramírez led off the frame with a home run off Wilton López.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth, Jimmy Paredes lined out to left field against Mármol. Shuck followed with a ground ball single to right field. With Clint Barmes at the plate, Mármol threw a wild pitch, and Shuck to advanced to second. Barmes then stroked line drive single to left field and Shuck went to third. Matt Downs was inserted to pinch hit for Quintero and drew a walk to load the bases. Bogusevic then pinch hit for reliever Aneury Rodríguez and went deep off Mármol to end the contest, 6–5.
Rodríguez, who finished off the top of the ninth with the last two outs, earned the first and only victory of his major league career.
Prior to Bogusevic, Astros pinch hitters to have belted walk-off grand slams included Milt May on May 22, 1974, and Gregg Zaun on June 27, 2002. Carlos Lee had blasted the most-recent walk-off grand slam on June 28, 2007. The 2011 campaign became the first in major league history where as many as three ultimate grand slams transpired. Bogusevic was preceded by Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians on July 7, 2011, and succeeded by Ryan Roberts on September 27, 2011, a member of the Diamondbacks.

Rest of August

On August 20, 2011, Altuve swatted his first major league home run in style—a leadoff inside-the-park job—while J. D. Martinez had four runs batted in to burn the San Francisco Giants at Minute Maid Park, 7–5. The triumph established a season-high four-game winning streak for Houston. Altuve collected three total hits and Martinez also homered and doubled. Altuve's inside-the-park homer was a landmark achievement. His was the first at Minute Maid Park since Adam Everett on August 6, 2003. Second, the previous inside-the-parker for an Astros player to also be his first major league home run was by pitcher Butch Henry on May 8, 1992 at Three Rivers Stadium. Third, Bill Doran had been the most recent to lead off a game with this type of home run on April 22, 1987, against the Atlanta Braves.
For the month of August, his first in the major leagues, outfielder J. D. Martinez collected 28 RBI to set a franchise rookie record for any month, while ranking second in the National League.

Performance overview

The Astros concluded the 2011 campaign with a 56–106 record, for sixth and last place within the NL Central, trailing the division-champion Milwaukee Brewers by 40 games. The Astros' record was also the worst in the National League. The 106 defeats signaled the first season in franchise history with 100 or more, shattering the previous record of 97 shared by the 1965, 1975, and 1991 squads. With their win total plummeting by 20, this represented the largest downturn since 1999–2000 with 25. The total of number of defeats during their antepenultimate campaign in the National League grew the following season.
As the 2011 season signaled the continuation of transition for the franchise during their rebuilding process, they rostered a staggering 20 rookies who all played at some point during the season. Moreover, rookies assumed larger roles on the team during the second half. Matt Downs proved a reliable weapon off the bench, including garnering a major-league best pinch-hit 15 RBI.
The Astros hit 95 home runs as a team, the first time since 1992 in which they hit fewer than 100 home runs.

Player stats

Batting

Note: G=Games played; AB=At bats; R=Runs scored; H=Hits; 2B=Doubles; 3B=Triples; HR=Home runs; RBI=Runs batted in; BB=Base on balls; SO=Strikeouts; SB=Stolen bases; AVG=Batting average

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
	155	585	66	161	38	4	18	94	59	60	4	0.275
	123	446	47	109	27	0	12	39	38	88	3	0.244
x	105	429	64	130	26	7	1	32	38	90	39	0.303
x	100	399	49	123	26	3	11	62	30	86	7	0.308
	107	378	32	95	21	3	7	42	16	97	2	0.251
	115	336	37	87	22	0	5	29	36	91	1	0.259
	110	288	35	69	10	0	1	28	27	44	3	0.240
	79	262	22	63	12	1	2	25	6	53	1	0.240
	93	238	30	70	8	2	1	16	10	24	31	0.294
	57	221	26	61	10	1	2	12	5	29	7	0.276
J.D. Martinez	53	208	29	57	13	0	6	35	13	48	0	0.274
Matt Downs	106	199	29	55	18	0	10	41	17	47	0	0.276
Jimmy Paredes	46	168	16	48	8	2	2	18	9	47	5	0.286
Brian Bogusevic	87	164	22	47	14	1	4	15	15	40	4	0.287
Jeff Keppinger	43	163	22	50	9	0	4	20	4	7	0	0.307
Jason Michaels	89	156	10	31	9	0	2	10	11	31	1	0.199
Carlos Corporán	52	154	9	29	8	1	0	11	10	49	0	0.188
J.R. Towles	54	147	11	27	7	0	3	11	13	26	0	0.184
Bill Hall	46	147	18	33	7	2	2	13	8	55	1	0.224
Jordan Schafer	30	106	14	26	4	0	1	6	10	28	7	0.245
JB Shuck	37	81	9	22	2	1	0	3	11	7	2	0.272
Joe Inglett	20	27	3	6	1	0	0	1	0	7	0	0.222
Robinson Cancel	2	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0.000
Luis Durango	2	6	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0.167
Pitcher totals	162	284	15	42	9	0	1	15	13	105	0	0.148
Team totals	162	5598	615	1442	309	28	95	579	401	1164	118	0.258

Source:

x Was not part of the team at end of the season

Pitching

Note: W=Wins; L=Losses; ERA=Earned run average; G=Games pitched; GS=Games started; SV=Saves; IP=Innings pitched; H=Hits allowed; R=Runs allowed; ER=Earned runs allowed; HR=Home runs allowed; BB=Walks allowed; SO=Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
	7	14	4.46	34	33	0	216.0	226	116	107	31	57	160
	11	11	3.49	30	30	0	191.0	182	81	74	25	69	166
	6	11	3.77	31	31	0	186.0	177	93	78	24	70	176
	6	15	5.35	28	28	0	156.1	157	103	93	21	83	134
	2	8	5.36	20	15	0	94.0	107	61	56	14	26	67
	1	6	5.27	43	8	0	85.1	83	57	50	13	32	64
	8	4	2.78	71	0	20	74.1	65	28	23	5	26	66
	2	6	2.79	73	0	0	71.0	72	26	22	6	18	56
	3	5	5.23	10	10	0	53.1	54	31	31	7	23	38
	0	3	4.58	54	0	0	53.0	59	30	27	3	31	31
Fernando Rodriguez	2	3	3.96	47	0	0	52.1	51	24	23	6	30	57
Jeff Fulchino	1	4	5.18	36	0	0	33.0	34	19	19	5	18	31
Nelson Figueroa	0	3	8.69	8	5	0	29.0	45	33	28	3	16	17
David Carpenter	1	3	2.93	34	0	1	27.2	28	9	9	3	13	29
Sergio Escalona	2	1	2.93	49	0	0	27.2	24	10	9	3	11	25
Fernando Abad	1	4	7.32	29	0	0	19.2	28	18	16	5	9	15
José Valdez	0	0	9.00	12	0	0	14.0	17	14	14	2	7	15
Brandon Lyon	3	3	11.48	15	0	4	13.1	27	17	17	4	5	6
Lucas Harrell	0	2	3.46	6	2	0	13.0	12	8	5	0	7	10
Wesley Wright	0	0	1.50	21	0	0	12.0	6	2	2	1	5	111
Juan Abreu	0	0	2.70	7	0	0	6.2	6	2	2	1	3	12
Lance Pendleton	0	0	17.36	4	0	0	4.2	10	9	9	4	1	5
Xavier Cedeño	0	0	27.00	3	0	0	1.2	7	5	5	2	0	0
Team totals	56	106	4.51	162	162	25	1435.0	1477	796	719	188	560	1191

Source:

Awards and achievements

Awards

Darryl Kile Good Guy Award: Jason Bourgeois
Houston Astros Player of the Year: Carlos Lee
MLB All-Star Game—Reserve outfielder: Hunter Pence

Minor league system

;Awards Baseball America First Team Minor League All-Star—Second baseman: Jose Altuve

Houston Astros Minor League Player of the Year: Jose Altuve
Texas League All-Star:—Outfielder: J. D. Martinez