The 2009

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

season was the 48th season for the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) franchise located in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, their 45th as the Astros, 48th in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(NL), 16th in the

NL Central The National League Central is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. This division was created in 1994, by moving two teams from the National League West (the Cincinnati Reds and the Houston Astros) and three teams from the National Le ...

division, and 10th at

Minute Maid Park Daikin Park (originally Enron Field and formerly Astros Field and Minute Maid Park) is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 and is the home ballpark of the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). ...

. 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. Two Astros players realized significant career milestones on June 13—

Lance Berkman William Lance Berkman (born February 10, 1976), nicknamed "Fat Elvis" and "Big Puma", is an American baseball coach and former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman, who is the former head baseball coach of the Houston Christian Hu ...

slugged his 300th

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

, while

Miguel Tejada Miguel Odalis Tejada ( Tejeda; born May 25, 1974) is a Dominican former professional baseball shortstop who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for six teams, most notably the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, before ...

collected his 2,000th

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization i ...

. Right fielder

Hunter Pence Hunter Andrew Pence (born April 13, 1983), nicknamed "The Reverend", is an American former professional baseball right fielder and designated hitter. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, San Fra ...

and Tejada (shortstop) represented the Astros at the

MLB All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

and played for the National League. This was the sixth career selection for Tejada, and first for Pence. 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 The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

. Center fielder Michael Bourne was awarded with his second career

Gold Glove The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances. It is awarded at each fieldin ...

Regular season

Summary

April

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 A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

(RBI) single in his first at bat with the club. They were then swept by the

Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

in a three-game series, giving up 19 runs while only being able to score 5 runs. The team then traveled to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

where they lost the first game 7-0. The next day,

Mike Hampton Michael William Hampton, Jr. (born September 9, 1972) is an American former professional baseball player. Hampton played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a pitcher from 1993 through 2010. He pitched for the Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, New ...

won his second start of his second stint with the franchise with an 8 strikeout, 6 inning outing for the win over the

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

's 6th inning 3 run

helped the Astros win the third game of the series against the Pirates. The Astros then returned home to

, where they had three good outings against the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * ''Reds'' (film), a 1981 American film starring and directed by Warren Beatty * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists duri ...

by ace

Roy Oswalt Roy Edward Oswalt (; born August 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Oswalt played for the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Houston Astros. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Texa ...

, journeyman

Wandy Rodríguez Wandy Fulton Rodríguez (born January 18, 1979) is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros from 2005 to 2012, the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2012 to 2014 and the Texas Ranger ...

and Triple-A

Round Rock Round Rock is a city in Williamson County, Texas, Williamson and Travis County, Texas, United States, part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The city stra ...

call-up

Felipe Paulino Felipe Albertin Paulino Del Guidice (born October 5, 1983) is a Dominican people (Dominican Republic), Dominican-Venezuelan people, Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astro ...

José Valverde José Rafael Valverde (born March 24, 1978) is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets. He is nickname ...

gave up a 2-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to

Ramón Hernández Ramón José Hernández Marin (; born May 20, 1976) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher and current major league staff assistant for the Athletics (baseball), Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB with the ...

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 Geoffrey Edward Blum (born April 26, 1973) is an American former professional baseball infielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox and Arizona D ...

with 3 RBIs on April 18, and

Geoff Geary Geoffrey Michael Geary (born August 26, 1976) is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros. Biography Geary graduated from Gr ...

gave up a two-run double to

Micah Owings Micah Burton Owings (born September 28, 1982) is an Americans, American former professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres between 2007 and 2012. Durin ...

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 Carlos Noriel Lee (born June 20, 1976), nicknamed "El Caballo", is a Panamanian former professional baseball left fielder and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1999 to 2012 with the Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, ...

's back to back solo shot home runs were not enough to beat the Red's

Edwin Encarnación Edwin Elpidio Encarnación Rivera (born January 7, 1983) is a Dominican former professional baseball designated hitter, third baseman and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleve ...

's 2 RBI single and

Joey Votto Joseph Daniel Votto (born September 10, 1983) is a Canadian-American former professional baseball first baseman who spent his entire 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Cincinnati Reds from 2007 to 2023. He was the second Canad ...

'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.

June

Two Astros players achieved significant career milestones on June 13—Berkman conenected for his 300th

, while

collected his 2,000th

to lead a 6–4 win over the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

. Berkman joined

Jeff Bagwell Jeffrey Robert Bagwell (born May 27, 1968) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Houston Astros. Originally a Boston Red Sox fourth- ...

as the second Astro to have hit as many home runs with the team, while Tejada followed

Craig Biggio Craig Alan Biggio (; born December 14, 1965) is an American former baseball second baseman, outfielder, and catcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros, from 1988 to 2007. A seven-time National League (baseball), ...

and Bagwell as having collected their 2,000th hit in an Astros uniform. On June 17, Astros catcher

Iván Rodríguez Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 27, 1971), nicknamed "Pudge" and "I-Rod", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Ran ...

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 An error (from the Latin , meaning 'to wander'Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “error (n.), Etymology,” September 2023, .) is an inaccurate or incorrect action, thought, or judgement. In statistics, "error" refers to the difference between t ...

that helped the Rangers to a 5–4 win.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Game log

, - bgcolor="ffbbbb" , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 1 , , April 6 , , Cubs , , 4–2 , , Zambrano (1–0) , ,

Oswalt Oswalt is a German surname or male given name, which is derived from the Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the ...

(0–1) , , Gregg (1) , , 43,827 , , 0–1 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 2 , , April 7 , , Cubs , , 3–2 (10) , , Brocail (1–0) , ,

Cotts Neal James Cotts (born March 25, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minneso ...

(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 , , @

, , 5–3 , , Piñeiro (1–0) , ,

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia * Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria ** Hampton railway station, Melbour ...

(0–1) , , McClellan (1) , , 37,224 , , 1–3 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 5 , , April 11 , , @

, , 11–2 , , Wainwright (1–0) , ,

(0–2) , , , , 43,454 , , 1–4 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 6 , , April 12 , , @

, , 3–0 , , Lohse (2–0) , , Rodríguez (0–1) , , , , 36,310 , , 1–5 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 7 , , April 13 , , @

, , 7–0 , ,

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

(2–0) , , Moehler (0–2) , , , , 38,411 , , 1–6 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 8 , , April 15 , , @

, , 4–1 , ,

(1–1) , , Ohlendorf (0–2) , , , , 20,690 , , 2–6 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 9 , , April 16 , , @

, , 6–3 , ,

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England and Scotland. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a ...

(1–0) , , Burnett (0–1) , , Hawkins (1) , , 13,877 , , 3–6 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 10 , , April 17 , ,

, , 2–1 , ,

Masset Masset (; formerly Massett) is a village in the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainl ...

(1–0) , , Valverde (0–1) , , Cordero (3) , , 32,268 , , 3–7 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 11 , , April 18 , ,

, , 7–0 , , Rodríguez (1–1) , , Harang (1–2) , , , , 30,141 , , 4–7 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 12 , , April 19 , ,

, , 4–2 , , Vólquez (2–1) , , Geary (0–1) , , Cordero (4) , , 29,372 , , 4–8 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 13 , , April 20 , ,

, , 4–3 , , Arroyo (3–0) , , Geary (0–2) , , Cordero (5) , , 23,308 , , 4–9 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 14 , , April 21 , ,

Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. Founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, the ...

, , 8–5 , ,

Ortiz Ortiz () is a Spanish-language patronymic surname meaning "son of Orti". "Orti" seems to be disputed in meaning, deriving from either Basque, Latin ''fortis'' meaning "brave, strong", or Latin ''fortunius'' meaning "fortunate". Officials of the Sp ...

(1–0) , , Kershaw (0–1) , , Valverde (1) , , 26,360 , , 5–9 , - align="center" bgcolor="bbffbb" , 15 , , April 22 , ,

, , 6–5 , ,

Sampson Sampson may refer to: Military * , several Royal Navy ships * , several US Navy ships * Sampson-class destroyer, a World War I US Navy class * Sampson Air Force Base, near Seneca Lake, New York, closed in 1956 * SAMPSON, a multi-function radar ...

(1–0) , ,

Belisario ''Belisario'' (''Belisarius'') is a ''tragedia lirica'' (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's adaptation of play, ''Belisarius'', first staged in Munich in 182 ...

(0–1) , , Hawkins (2) , , 26,725 , , 6–9 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 16 , , April 23 , ,

, , 2–0 , , Billingsley (4–0) , , Rodríguez (1–2) , , Broxton (5) , , 26,081 , , 6–10 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 17 , , April 24 , , Brewers , , 5–2 , , Gallardo (2–1) , ,

Paulino Paulino is a surname and a masculine given name. It is a Spanish and Portuguese form of the Roman family name ''Paulinus'', which was itself derived from the Roman family name Paulus meaning "small" or "humble" in Latin. People with the given ...

(0–1) , , , , 25,316 , , 6–11 , - align="center" bgcolor="ffbbbb" , 18 , , April 25 , , Brewers , , 9–8 (11) , ,

DiFelice DiFelice is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Mike DiFelice (born 1969), American baseball player * Mark DiFelice (born 1976), American baseball player and coach See also * De Felice * Felice {{Short pages monitor

Roster

Player stats

Note: Team batting and pitching leaders are in bold.

Batting

''Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases''

Pitching

''Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; SO = Strikeouts; WHIP = (Walks+hits) per innings pitched''

Farm system

References

External links

2009 Houston Astros season Official Site

2009 Houston Astros season at Baseball Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009 Houston Astros Season Houston Astros seasons

2009 in sports in Texas 2009 in Houston