In 1998, Mark McGwire led the league with a record 70 home runs, 162 walks, a .470 OBP, and a .752 slugging average. He received only two first-place votes for MVP, however, finishing far behind near-unanimous winner Sammy Sosa, who himself hit 66 home runs and led the league in runs and RBI.
Thirteen games. That’s how many the Central Division-leading Astros are scheduled to play in September against the Cubs, who trail by four games, and the Cardinals, who trail by six games. Indeed, other than three games at San Francisco, the Astros will spend the last two weeks of the season battling Chicago and St. Louis.
What to expect from a former Rockies player is always an enigma since the mile-high air does strange things to the flight of a baseball. Taking a crack at the mystery, the Astros hope Tuesday’s acquisition of Pedro Astacio will replace a hole in the rotation left by ailing ex-ace-to-be Scott Elarton.
One of the few bright spots for the Astros last year was the second-half offense, which was the hottest in baseball. The Astros entered the first half of this season without skipping a beat. They rank at the top of the National League in the most important offensive categories and, as their road statistics demonstrate, are by no means a mere creation of Enron Field:
Split R/G Avg OBP Slg HR% ------------------------------------- Total 5.52 .276 .352 .474 4.50 NL Rank 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st ------------------------------------- Road 5.30 .272 .346 .463 4.45 NL Rank 3rd 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd
Record and Standings
Record W L ----------------- April 12 12 May 14 13 June 15 12 ----------------- Total 41 37
Unlike the first two months of the season, in June the Astros played reasonably well the second half of the month. They stood at .500 on June 15 but subsequently won nine of 14 games.
What have they done?
Like April, the Astros excelled the first half of the month, going 11-4 through May 17. The rest of the month they went 3-9, including an eight-game losing streak. The offense and pitching both declined during the collapse, but given that the staff continued to post a decent ERA, the line-up was chiefly to blame:
Dates R/G ERA --------------------- 5/01-5/17 5.33 3.73 5/18-5/31 4.58 4.78
