1983 – Dickie Thon swats two home runs to carry Houston to a 4-2 victory over Atlanta. He hits a solo shot off Craig McMurtry then a two-run blast off Terry Forster to give the Astros the cushion they need.
1983 – Dickie Thon tags two solo homers off Eric Show to give Nolan Ryan all the cushion he needs. Houston dumps San Diego, 4-1. Ryan fans six and is one behind Philly’s Steve Carlton in the all-time strikeout race.
1983 – Alan Ashby smashes two homers and a double, driving in six, to rout the Reds, 13-0. Mike Scott wins his first game as an Astro. Ray Knight contributes four hits.
1983 – Phil Garner scores the winning run while ex-Astro Danny Heep argues the call of first base ump Terry Tata in a 6-4 victory over the New York Mets. Tata had ruled that Jose Cruz beat Heep to the bag on a roller to first. Nobody calls for time and Garner alertly speeds home. Garner’s double off the third base bag had scored Omar Moreno and Dickie Thon to set up the go-ahead moment.
1983 – Nolan Ryan breaks Walter Johnson’s major league record for career strikeouts, fanning Montreal’s Brad Mills for his 3,509th victim. Ironically it was a curveball, not Ryan’s famed fastball, that claims Mills. Ryan accomplishes the feat in 2,500 less innings than Johnson needed to set it. Nolan tips his cap to the applauding Canadian fans then quickly resumes on his way to a 4-2 victory.
1983 – Mike LaCoss battles Steve Carlton to a 2-2 draw before Jose Cruz caps a three-hit night with the game-winner in the eleventh. Omar Moreno scores for the 3-2 win over Philadelphia.
1983 – Nolan Ryan fans seven Expos to pass 3,500 strikeouts for his career. He beats Montreal, 6-3, for his first win of the season. Ray Knight adds two hits, including a home run.
1982 – Judge Roy Hofheinz dies in Houston at age 70 of a heart attack. A former state representative, Harris County Judge and Mayor of Houston before setting his sights on baseball, Hofheinz starts out owning just 1% of the Houston Sports Association but eventually retains control and builds other entities such as an amusement park, a hotel and an exhibition hall to his “Astrodomain”. Poor health and poor investments cause him to sell his ownership in 1975.
1982 – Astros hand the Reds their 100th loss of the season, the first time in their storied 114-year history. Starter Frank DiPino has the honors with a 4-2 victory. Harry Spilman gets the key hit, a two-run single in the four-run fourth. Astros would win the next day to finish with a 77-85 campaign, in fifth place ahead of only Cincinnati.
1982 – Nolan Ryan takes a no-hitter against the Mets into the eighth inning, eventually winning a two-hit shutout, 4-0. He strikes out nine along the way. Ron Hodges breaks up history with a single. Tony Scott drives in two of the four runs.
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