1981 – Joe Niekro and Dave Smith combine on a two-hitter to blank San Diego, 3-0. Niekro and Steve Mura trade goose eggs for seven innings until Tony Scott drives home Joe Pittman in the eighth. Gary Woods then delivers Scott. In the ninth, Scott again plates Pittman with an insurance run. The shutout caps a seven-game road trip to open the “second season”, with the Astros winning five of them.
1981 – Rafael Landestoy steals a base and scores on a single by Terry Puhl as Houston outlasts the Giants, 8-7, in 14 innings. The Astros blew a lead in the ninth then blew a three-run lead in the 13th before putting this one away. Houston tallies 21 hits in the effort, including three by Joe Niekro.
1980 – Denny Walling delivers Rafael Landestoy with a sacrifice fly as Houston wins their first post-season home game, 1-0, over Philadelphia . The Astros lead the best-of-five N.L.C.S., 2-1. Joe Morgan slams a Tug McGraw fastball high off the right field fence in the 11th inning for a triple and comes out for Landestoy. Joe Niekro blanks the Phils for ten innings before Dave Smith enters to get the win.
In the 163rd game of the season, 35 year-old knuckleballer Joe Niekro earns his 20th victory, going the distance to defeat the Dodgers, 7-1, in the winner-take-all contest for the NL West. With the win, the Astros hold on to capture their first title in the 19-year history of the franchise after losing a season-ending three game series to LA, (3-2, 2-1, and 4-3) that forced the one-game playoff.
1980 – Joe Niekro comes on in relief to start the 16th inning of a scoreless tie with the Cubs at the Dome. He wins it himself an inning later when he drives home Enos Cabell for a 1-0 triumph in 17 frames. Houston pitchers allow just seven hits to increase their lead in the NL West to three games over Los Angeles.
1980 – Cold, damp Olympic Stadium is where the Astros must wait through a rain delay of three hours and 50 minutes to complete an 8-4 victory. Jose Cruz has four RBIs to lead the Astros while Joe Niekro survives the weather and the Expos for a complete-game win.
1979 – Chicago Cubs closer Bruce Sutter, who had a 6-6 record with a 2.23 ERA and saved 37 of his team’s 80 victories, wins the National League Cy Young Award by a 72-66 margin over Houston Astros starter Joe Niekro.
Atlanta’s Phil Niekro notches his 20th win of the season by beating his brother Joe, the National League’s only other 20-game winner this season, 9 – 4. The Niekro brothers are the second pair (the other was Jim Perry and Gaylord Perry) to win 20 games in the same year, and Phil Niekro, who finishes at 21-20, is the first pitcher since Wilbur Wood in 1973 to win and lose 20 games the same year, and the first NL pitcher to do so since 1905.
1978 – Joe Niekro outduels his brother Phil in a 2-0 whitewash of the Braves and denies Phil a 20-win season. Joe allows seven hits then gives way to Ken Forsch in the ninth. Jose Cruz and Julio Gonzalez drive in the game’s only runs.
On May 29, 1976, Houston Astros pitcher Joe Niekro hits the only home run of his 22-year major league career (973 At Bats). Strangely enough, Niekro reaches the seats against his brother, Phil, the ace of the Atlanta Braves. The seventh-inning blast comes on a knuckleball that Joe sends over the left field fence. Ken…
Enjoy our free trial and start listening to games, interviews and shows! Ruth, Mantle, Aaron, and Seaver!