The 2009 Houston Astros season was the 48th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 45th as the Astros, 48th in the National League (NL), 16th in the NL Central division, and 10th at Minute Maid Park. The Astros entered the season with a 86–75 record, in third place in the NL Central division and 12 games behind the first-place Chicacgo Cubs. It was the 14th winning season out of the previous 16 for the Astros.
On April 6, pitcher Roy Oswalt made his seventh consecutive Opening Day start as the Astros hosted the Cubs, but were defeated, 4–2. In the amateur draft, the Astros selected shortstop Jio Mier in the first round at 21st overall, shortstop Enrique Hernández in the sixth round, pitcher Dallas Keuchel in the seventh round, and outfielder J. D. Martinez in the 20th round.
Two Astros players realized significant career milestones on June 13—Lance Berkman slugged his 300th home run, while Miguel Tejada collected his 2,000th hit.
Right fielder Hunter Pence and Tejada (shortstop) represented the Astros at the MLB All-Star Game and played for the National League. This was the sixth career selection for Tejada, and first for Pence. On August 15, Kazuo Matsui recorded his 2,000th hit in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and MLB combined.
The Astros concluded the 2009 season with a 74–88 record, in fifth place in the NL Central, and 17 games behind the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals. This was the first of six consecutive losing seasons for Houston, through 2014. The only other occurrence in franchise history with as many consecutive losing seasons was in their first seven years in existence, from 1962 to 1968.
Center fielder Michael Bourne was awarded with his second career Gold Glove following the season. Former Astros Carlos Beltrán and Jeff Kent were selected to All-Decade Teams by Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, respectively.
Regular season Summary April
+ Opening Day starting lineup Player Position 3 Kazuo Matsui Second baseman 12 Iván Rodríguez Catcher 17 Lance Berkman First baseman 45 Carlos Lee Left fielder 10 Miguel Tejada Shortstop 27 Geoff Blum Third baseman 9 Hunter Pence Right fielder 21 Michael Bourn Center fielder 44 Roy Oswalt Pitcher Venue: Minute Maid Park • Chidago 4, Houston 2 Sources:
The Astros hosted the Chicago Cubs for Opening Day on April 6, which ended in defeat, 4–2. Aramis Ramírez and Alfonso Soriano both homered off Astros starter Roy Oswalt, which conveyed the right-hander the defeat. Meanwhile, Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano scattered five hits and three walks over six innings to obtain the victory. Shortstop Miguel Tejada led Astros hitters with three hits and scored both runs. Oswalt extended his club-record for pitchers with his seventh Opening Day start, all fulfilled in succession.
The Astros lost their season opening series against the Chidago Cubs, their one win coming off of former Cincinnati Red Jeff Keppinger's tenth inning run batted in (RBI) single in his first at bat with the club.
They were then swept by the Cardinals in St. Louis in a three-game series, giving up 19 runs while only being able to score 5 runs. The team then traveled to Pittsburgh where they lost the first game 7-0. The next day, Mike Hampton won his second start of his second stint with the franchise with an 8 strikeout, 6 inning outing for the win over the Pirates. Lance Berkman's 6th inning 3 run home run helped the Astros win the third game of the series against the Pirates.
The Astros then returned home to Minute Maid Park, where they had three good outings against the Reds by ace Roy Oswalt, journeyman Wandy Rodríguez and Triple-A Round Rock call-up Felipe Paulino. José Valverde gave up a 2-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to Ramón Hernández for the loss in Oswalt's game on April 17, Rodriguez's got the win with a strong offensive outing by the Astros led by Geoff Blum with 3 RBIs on April 18, and Geoff Geary gave up a two-run double to Micah Owings in the top of the seventh inning for the loss in Paulino's game on April 19. In the fourth game of the series, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee's back to back solo shot home runs were not enough to beat the Red's Edwin Encarnación's 2 RBI single and Joey Votto's 2 RBI double to give the Red's the series, 3–1. The Houston Astros are an even 451 wins and 451 losses against the Chicago Cubs.
May Every starter collected at least two hits on May 13—including pitcher Mike Hampton—for the Astros, who routed the Colorado Rockies, 15–11. Further, Houston piled on 24 hits in all, one short of the franchise record.
From May 16 to June 3, Miguel Tejada manufactured a 17-game hitting streak, which tied for fourth-longest in the National League on the season. Tejada batted .444, .736 slugging percentage (SLG), nine doubles, four home runs, and 12 RBI. Later in the season, starting September 11, Tejada produced a longer hitting streak that reached 21 games.
During the May 17 contest at Wrigley Field, Iván Rodríguez connected for his 300th career home run. It was one of the first milestones featured in a season highlighting achievement by a number of distinguished veterans on this Astros roster.
For the week ended May 24, Miguel Tejada batted .522 / .542 on-base percentage (OBP) / 1.043 SLG, 13 hits in 23 at bats, three home runs and three doubles. Tejada was selected as the NL Player of the Week.
As of May 30, Houston had a record of for last place in the NL Central division.
June
On June 5, Carlos Lee slugged his 13th career grand slam Lee's 10th home run of the season, this capped a seven-run sixth inning that led to a 9–1 Astros win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mike Hampton (4–4) scattered five hits and one run over seven innings to obtain the victory.
Two Astros players achieved significant career milestones on June 13—Berkman conenected for his 300th home run, while Miguel Tejada collected his 2,000th hit to lead a 6–4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Berkman joined Jeff Bagwell as the second Astro to have hit as many home runs with the team. Meanwhile, Tejada joined José Cruz (September 15, 1985), Craig Biggio (May 4, 2001) and Bagwell (April 26, 2003, as players to have actualized their 2,000th hit in an Astros uniform.
On June 17, Astros catcher Iván Rodríguez made his 2,227th start behind the dish against the Texas Rangers, his long-time team. This start broke the all-time record for games played at catcher. However, Rodríguez made two crucial errors that helped the Rangers to a 5–4 win.
July On July 8, southpaw Wandy Rodríguez tossed his second career shutout, while tying his then-career high 11 strikeouts.
Following a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals on July 22, Houston had been on a run since the start of June which pulled the club to within a game of first place.
Over five contests during the month of July, Wandy Rodríguez posted a 4–0 win–loss record (w–l), 0.75 earned run average (ERA), 34 strikeouts, and 0.944 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP). Rodríguez surrendered three earned runs, two home runs, and produced a 4.86 strikeout-to-walk ratio (K/BB). Following this effort, Rodríguez was named National League (NL) Pitcher of the Month. Rodríguez succeeded Roy Oswalt as the most recent Astros moundsman to win the award, having been recognized in September 2006.
August Following suit of Iván Rodríguez and Lance Berkman earlier in the year, on August 8, Carlos Lee cranked the 300th home run of his career at Minute Maid Park. Hence, the Astros became the first club in major league history in which three player crossed the 300-home run threshold during the same season.
On August 15, Kazuo Matsui sprinted to record an infield single in Milwaukee for his 2,000th top-level professional hit, combined from his career in both the Pacific League in Japan along with six seasons in the National League. The event received live television coverage back home and play was halted as Japanese officials commemorated Matsui's automatic induction into the Meikyukai (Golden Players Club, an equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame). However, the Astros were defeated, 6-2.
September—October Carlos Lee hit in 12 straight games commencing September 8 for third-longest on the Astros in 2009.
Starting September 11 through October 4, Miguel Tejada authored a 21-game hitting streak, tied with Derrek Lee for second-longest in the National League in 2009, trailing Ryan Zimmerman, who netted 30 consecutive. Tejada batted .407, cranked four home runs, and drove in 14 baserunners. This was the second-longest hitting streak of Tejada's career to 24 consecutive from July 11 to August 4, 2002.
Performance overview The Astros concluded the 2009 campaign with a record for fifth place in the NL Central, and 11 games behind the division-champion St. Louis Cardinals, a reduction of 12 wins from the year prior. This was the first of six consecutive losing seasons, an artifact not realized by the club since the inception of the expansion era in 1962 until 1968, during which they also lost 90 or more games every year. In spite of the downturn, Houston maintained their winning ways at home, reeling off a ninth straight winning chapter at Minute Maid Park, at . They concluded their first decade with a combined showing.
In a polling of fans, Craig Biggio’s 3,000th hit on June 28, 2007, was determined the most iconic moment in Minute Maid Park history.
The 2009 stage was the final as coach for longtime former Astros outfielder José Cruz, who had served as first base coach for Houston since the 1997 season.
Miguel Tejada totaled 199 hits, which at the time, ranked as the second-highest total in club history to Craig Biggio's 210 hits in 1998. Tejada connected for a National League-leading 46 doubles, succeeding Lance Berkman as the league leader, who also hit 46 the year prior. Tejada also led the National League in double plays grounded into for the second successive campaign. Having previously led the American League (AL) thrice, the five total campaigns leading the league in this category established a Major League record.
Outfielder Michael Bourn received the Gold Glove Award, the first Astros player at the position since César Cedeño in 1976. Bourn also topped the National League with 61 stolen bases, the second Astro to do so, succeeding Biggio in 1994. With runners in scoring position, Bourn hit a robust .353.
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Game log
|- bgcolor="ffbbbb" |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 1 || April 6 || Cubs || 4–2 || Zambrano (1–0) || Oswalt (0–1) || Gregg (1) || 43,827 || 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" | 2 || April 7 || Cubs || 3–2 (10) || Brocail (1–0) || Cotts (0–1) || || 31,121 || 1–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 3 || April 8 || Cubs || 11–6 || Lilly (1–0) || Moehler (0–1) || || 30,047 || 1–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 4 || April 10 || @ Cardinals || 5–3 || Piñeiro (1–0) || Hampton (0–1) || McClellan (1) || 37,224 || 1–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 5 || April 11 || @ Cardinals || 11–2 || Wainwright (1–0) || Oswalt (0–2) || || 43,454 || 1–4 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 6 || April 12 || @ Cardinals || 3–0 || Lohse (2–0) || Rodríguez (0–1) || || 36,310 || 1–5 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 7 || April 13 || @ Pirates || 7–0 || Duke (2–0) || Moehler (0–2) || || 38,411 || 1–6 |- align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" | 8 || April 15 || @ Pirates || 4–1 || Hampton (1–1) || Ohlendorf (0–2) || || 20,690 || 2–6 |- align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" | 9 || April 16 || @ Pirates || 6–3 || Wright (1–0) || Burnett (0–1) || Hawkins (1) || 13,877 || 3–6 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" | 10 || April 17 || Reds || 2–1 || Masset (1–0) || Valverde (0–1) || Cordero (3) || 32,268 || 3–7 |- align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" | 11 || April 18 || Reds || 7–0 || Rodríguez (1–1) || Harang (1–2) || || 30,141 || 4–7 |- align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb"