Part 4 of the countdown to Opening Day look back at every Astros Opening Day from 1962-2021.
April 7, 1992: Braves 2, Astros 0: A colossal turnaround season from 65 wins to 81 started with something that happened a lot in the 1990s: the Astros getting dominated by the Braves. Tom Glavine pitched a 2-hit shutout and struck out 9, outdueling Pete Harnisch, who gave up two earned runs in 7-2/3 innings. Only Steve Finley and Pete Incaviglia, who I once saw eating at Hooters with Moises Alou, got hits. Deion Sanders started in center for the Braves in a season in which he led the NL in triples with 14 despite only playing in 97 games. That is freaking insane.
April 5, 1993: Phillies 3, Astros 1: The team's first winning season since 1989 started with 3 straight losses to the Phils. Huge crowd of 44,560 at the Dome to welcome new owner Drayton McLane and our new pitching staff, led by Doug Drabek, who gave up 2 runs in 8 innings, but was outdueled by Terry Mulholland, who pitched a complete game 4-hitter.
April 4, 1994: Astros 6, Expos 5 (12 innings): The wildest opening day in club history, and one I was happy to attend by skipping 3 classes at A&M with 3 of my friends. Expos led 3-0 after 3-1/2 innings, Astros tied it at 3 in the bottom of the 5th on a two-run jack by Jeff Bagwell. New Astro closer Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams came in to start the top of the 12th still tied at three, his first action since Joe Carter took him yard to end the 1993 World Series. He got two quick outs, then gave up singles to Wil Cordero and Jeff Gardner. After a passed ball, he walked Sean Berry to load the bases, then walked Randy Milligan and Marquis Grissom to score runs before getting yanked. Astros came to the plate down 5-3 in the bottom of the 12th. Walk to James Mouton, single by Steve Finley, then Biggio struck out swinging. Bagwell singles in Mouton to make it 5-4, Luis Gonzalez strikes out looking, then Ken Caminiti hit a two-run double to score two runs and make it a walkoff. For those old enough to remember, Williams was the biggest train wreck of all time. The Astros used him 25 times and he went 1-4 with 6 saves and a 7.65 ERA before getting cut. He had 24 walks in 20 innings.
April 26, 1995: Astros 10, Padres 2: The strike, no World Series, then a lockout. Finally back on the field to crush the Padres who we were trading players with every 10 days back then. Bagwell, Derek Bell, and Phil "Power" Plantier combined to for 6-for-12 with 5 runs scored and 7 RBI. The game featured 11 players who had been or would be traded from one team to the other at some point. On December 28, 1994, we traded Caminiti, Andujar Cedeno Steve Finley, Roberto Petagine, and Brian Williams for Derek Bell, Ricky Gutierrez, Doug Brocail, Pedro Martinez (not the good one), Phil Plantier, and Craig Shipley.
April 1, 1996: Dodgers 4, Astros 3: Astros couldn't stop Todd Holllandsworth, who was 2 for 4 with 3 RBI. Jeff Bagwell had a homer, but the Astros managed just six hits on the day, losing to Ramon Martinez in the process.
April 6, 1997: Astros 2, Braves 1: Breaking an 11-year playoff drought and starting with an incredible win over the Braves. Shane Reynolds and Billy Wagner combined to allow just 1 earned run and strike out 9, while John Smoltz took a complete game loss. This game featured the start of the Pat Listach experiment at shortstop and also featured Bobby Abreu playing right field.
March 31, 1998: Giants 9, Astros 4 (13 innings): The team that won 102 games and spent 152 days in first place got off to a rough start. The Astros were never more than 1 game below .500 the entire year. Unfortunately, they let C.J. Nitkowski pitch the top of the 13th and the Giants' lit him up like a Christmas tree, with Jeff Kent doing the most damage finishing 5 for 7 with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI. We also let Stan Javier rive in 3 runs somehow. Derek Bell was 4-for-6 with 2 RBI and Sean Berry hit a home run for the good guys.
April 6, 1999: Astros 4, Cubs 2: The last year of baseball in the Astrodome started with a win at home over the Cubs in front of 51,668 people. Carl Everett and Richardo Hidalgo both had home runs and Shane Reynolds got the win and had an RBI. Mark Grace was 3 for 3 with a home for the Cubbies.
April 4, 2000: Astros 5, Pirates 2: The first year of Enron (oops) Field was a total disaster with a 72-90 record, but it started with a road win over the Pirates. Jason Schmidt walked the bases loaded in the top of the sixth and Richard Hidalgo hit a grand slam to put the game away. Shane Reynolds got the win for the Astros
April 3, 2001: Astros 11, Brewers 3: Craig Biggio went 5 for 5 on Opening Day and Daryle Ward went 2 for 4 with 6 RBI in the laugher against a really bad Brewer team. Scott Elarton got the opening day win for the good guys, 6 innings, 2 runs, 5 strikeouts. Milwaukee decided 39-year-old Tony Fernandez was a good leadoff hitter in that game. And now I feel bad because I clicked on Tony Fernandez's page and see that he died a couple of years ago. Lo siento.
Life is better with a beagle