2003 Houston Astros season

Offseason

Summary

To commemorate the life and humanitarian qualities of former pitcher Darryl Kile, who had died suddenly prior to a game in Chicago on June 22, 2002, the Astros and St. Louis Cardinals—two of Kile's former teams—united to create the "Darryl Kile Good Guy Award." Intended for bestowal upon one Astros and one Cardinals player following each season, its recognition would signify that player exemplifies Kile’s qualities as "a good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man." During his career, Kile posted a 133-119 win–loss record (W–L) and an earned run average (ERA) of 4.12. Jeff Bagwell became the first recipient for Houston following the 2003 season, while Mike Matheny was the first for St. Louis.

Following its issuance to Kile from 1991–1997, no other Astros have worn the uniform number 57 since.

Outfielder Richard Hidalgo survived a scare and remained largely unharmed during a carjacking attempt on him in Venezuela on November 22, 2002. He had sustained a gunshot wound to his left arm. However, he appeared to have escaped significant injury, without signs either of fracture or ligament damage.

Transactions

• October 11, 2002: Declined team option on right-handed pitcher Shane Reynolds.
• December 18,2002: Signed free agent second baseman Jeff Kent to a 2-year, $18.2 million contract.

Regular season

Summary

For the second time in his career, franchise stalwart Craig Biggio changed positions, serving as the club's primary center fielder in 2003.

April—May

;Opening Day starting lineup

During a 3–2 loss to the Montreal Expos on April 26, first baseman Jeff Bagwell hit an infield single for his 2,000th career hit—all as a member of the Astros—joining teammate Craig Biggio as the only players to achieve this feat.

Following a game at Minute Maid Park on May 1, shortstop Julio Lugo was arrested and charged with assaulting his wife in their vehicle while driving on the Eastex Freeway the evening before. He was then designated for assignment, subsequently cleared waivers, and given an unconditional release by the club.

The Astros placed Oswalt on the disabled list (DL) on May 18 due to a right groin strain

June

In his return from the DL on June 7, Richard Hidalgo connected for a game-winning three-run home over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays which resulted in a 5–4 score. Part of a 3-hit night, Hidalgo had been hospitalized with tonsillitis just one week prior. Meanwhile, Lance Berkman hit a ballpark-record 464 ft home run, and Billy Wagner converted the 199th save of his career to tie a franchise record.

On June 8, Wagner earned his 200th career save against Tampa Bay.

Oswalt—Munro—Saarloos—Lidge—Dotel—Wagner combined no-hitter

Following an early departure by starter Roy Oswalt due to a groin injury on June 11 at Yankee Stadium, five Astros relievers supervened to toss a no-hitter for the first against the New York Yankees in 45 years. Houston's early access into the bullpen segued into establishing the major league record for most pitchers contributing to such a contest during an 8–0 Astros victory. Succeeding Oswalt from the second inning on, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Wagner each delivered in this historic contest. Lidge (4–0), who worked the sixth and seventh innings, was credited with the win.

In the top of the fourth, Berkman launched a deep blast to right field that also plated Geoff Blum, capping Houston's scoring while mounting a 4–0 advantage. In addition to Berkman's home run, the Astros aggregated five doubles, including two from Hidalgo, and a triple from Orlando Merced.

Dotel assumed the mound for Houston for the eighth frame, which culminated into its own unique event. The right-hander whiffed Juan Rivera on three pitches for the first out. Next, Alfonso Soriano fouled off three consecutive offerings before swinging and missing on a wild pitch bounced in the dirt that eluded catcher Brad Ausmus for an uncaught third strike, acquiescing passage for Soriano to scamper safely to first base. Derek Jeter then coaxed a full count, but struck out swinging, and Dotel retired Jason Giambi with a swing-and-miss on a 2–2 count. Not only did Dotel became the 44th pitcher to sling a major-league record tying four-strikeout inning, but he became the first to do so during a no-hitter.

During top of the opening frame, the Astros lineup leveraged the wild pitch from Yankees starter Jeff Weaver to ignite the scoring. Biggio led the contest off with a double. Blum then flied out deep enough to center field to advance Biggio to third. Next, Bagwell grounded out to the pitcher, and Jeff Kent followed with a walk. With Berkman at the plate, Weaver's wild pitch on a 1–2 count allowed Biggio to score and Kent to go to second, while the Astros assumed a 1–0 advantage. Berkman also grounded out to Weaver to retire the side.

During the bottom of the first, Oswalt retired the Yankees in order, while concluding the frame via successive punchouts of Jeter and Giambi. Oswalt received a game score of 55 for his lone inning of work.

After Merced's triple to left-center in the top of the second, José Vizcaíno lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to bring him home and increase the Astros' lead to 2–0.

Munro, who replaced Oswalt, injected the bulk of the effort for Houston's bullpen. Over total frames, Munro struck out a pair, while navigating three bases on balls. They were New York's only other batters who reached base besides Soriano: Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Todd Zeile.

Wagner entered in the top of the ninth and proceeded to whiff both Posada and Bubba Trammell, who pinch-hit for Robin Ventura. The southpaw then generated a groundball tapper from Hideki Matsui back to himself, who flipped the ball to Bagwell at first to polish off the masterpiece.

Dotel further became the second Astro to complete the comeback for that fourth strikeout during a single inning, and first since Mike Scott on September 3, 1986, versus the Chicago Cubs. In all, Astros pitching induced 13 whiffs. during the club's first-ever game in The Bronx.

This was the first combined no-hit effort in club history, tenth overall for Houston, and the first occasion in a major-league record 6.980 contests that the Yankees had been no-hit. The previous occurrence was on September 20, 1958, when Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles hurled a no-hitter that resulted in a 1–0 decision over New York.

The most recent no-hit game by a Houston Astro had been Darryl Kile's gem on September 8, 1993, and the following such outing was posted by Mike Fiers on August 21, 2015.

Rest of June

Oswalt missed time following that start in The Bronx, and was out of action until 26 days later on July 7, when he surrendered one run in six innings to lead a 7–1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Inserted as a pinch hitter for his first major league plate appearance on June 27, Dave Matranga connected for a home run off Joaquin Benoit in the fifth inning, which tied the game with the Texas Rangers at 4-4. However, Texas later rallied to win this contest, 10–7. Matranga became the first Astros player to hit a home run in his first major league plate appearance since pitcher José Sosa connected off Danny Frisella of the San Diego Padres on July 30, 1975, at the Astrodome. The next Astros player to accomplish this feat was Charlton Jimerson on September 4, 2006, also as pinch hitter, whose drive ended a perfect game bid by Cole Hamels after innings.

July

Highlighting a six-run first inning on July 9, shortstop Adam Everett hit his first career grand slam to lead a 12–2 rout of the Cincinnati Reds at Minute Maid Park. Everett also set a career-high 4 RBI on that first-inning swing. Lance Berkman and Hidalgo hit consecutive home runs for Houston, while Gregg Zaun had another. Biggio and Hidalgo collected three hits apiece to lead the Astros. Ken Griffey Jr. connected for his 478th career home run for Cincinnati.

On July 10, Biggio extended his club record with his 500th career double.

Jeff Bagwell's 400th home run

In another contest versus Cincinnati on July 20, Bagwell hit two home runs for the 400th of his career off Danny Graves, becoming the 35th player in MLB history to do so. The leader in club history since April 21, 1999, Bagwell continued to add to his record. His drive became the highest milestone home hit by an Astros player since Eddie Mathews on July 14, 1967, who connected for his 500th home run at Candlestick Park.

August—September

On August 6, Everett hit the first-ever inside-the-park home run at Minute Maid Park, one of four Astros home runs against the New York Mets.

ESPN published "The List" on August 20, which profiled and ranked Bagwell and Biggio as the second- and third-most underrated athletes, respectively, of the top four North American professional sports leagues.

At Coors Field on September 16, Hidalgo launched three home runs in a single game, becoming the seventh Houston Astro to accomplish the feat. Hidalgo went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and five RBI to lead a 14–4 win over the Colorado Rockies.

Performance overview

The Astros nearly made the playoffs for the fifth time over seven seasons, in the midst of an unprecedented period of success in franchise history. With an 85–77 record, Houston wound up second in the NL Central division, one game behind the division-champion Chicago Cubs. In the Wild Card race, the Astros trailed the Florida Marlins—that year's eventual World Series champion—by just 4 games, also in second place.

Having scored 805 runs and yielded 677, the club underperformed their Pythagorean expectation of .

Though Houston improved by one win from the year prior, it was the second consecutive season missing the playoffs, while missing on consecutive seasons for the first time since 1996. This was also the most games won missing the playoffs since 1993, the year before the Wild Card era. However, the 2003 season continued one of the greatest periods of success, in that it was the third of six consecutive with a winning record, through the 2006 campaign, the second-longest such in club history. They had also agglomerated 84 wins or more in six of each of the seven prior seasons (with 2000 being the exception) and continued to win 84 or more through 2005.

Hidalgo, who led the major leagues with 22 outfield assists, was recognized with the club's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.

Closer Billy Wagner set the Astros' single-season franchise record with a career-high 44 saves.

Starter Jeriome Robertson set a club rookie record with 15 wins, which led all MLB rookies as well as the Astros' pitching staff.

Standings

National League Central

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

• May 1, 2003: Julio Lugo was designated for assignment, and then released 10 days later after "hitting his wife in the face and slamming her head on a car hood" outside of Minute Maid Park.
• June 3, 2003: Josh Anderson was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 4th round of the 2003 amateur draft. Player signed June 13, 2003.
• August 21, 2003: Gregg Zaun was released by the Houston Astros.

Roster

Players 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

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pitching

Starters

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Awards and achievements

;Awards

• Baseball Digest Rookie All-Star—Starting pitcher: Jeriome Robertson
• Darryl Kile Good Guy Award: Jeff Bagwell
• Fred Hartman Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Baseball: Charlie Maiorana
• Houston-Area Major League Player of the Year: Andy Pettitte (NYY)
• Houston Astros Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award: Richard Hidalgo
• Houston Astros Pitcher of the Year: Billy Wagner
• Houston Astros Rookie of the Year: Brad Lidge
• MLB All-Star Game—Reserve pitcher: Billy Wagner
• NL Player of the Week:—June 8: Morgan Ensberg

;Individual batting leaders

• Hit by pitch: Craig Biggio (27, led MLB)

;Individual pitching leaders

• Games finished: Billy Wagner (67, led MLB)

Minor league system

References

;Footnotes

;Sources

References

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5. (December 18, 2022). "Astros give Kent 2-yaar, $18.2 million deal". [[ESPN.com]].
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32. Marron, Jim. (August 20, 2003). "The List: Underrated current athletes". ESPN.com.
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39. [https://www.baseball-reference.com/z/zaungr01.shtml Gregg Zaun Statistics] Baseball-Reference.com
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