Revisiting the Astros and Three Straight 100-Loss Seasons

In March, I wrote about the Astros' "pursuit" of baseball history and a potential third consecutive 100-loss season.

Lo and behold, Houston has been dismal this year, with the worst pitching staff in the majors and a defense that is battling it out with the White Sox for the most-errors trophy*.

* This trophy, awarded yearly to the team that makes the most errors in baseball, is a pewter figurine depicting the home run bouncing off Jose Canseco's head. On the base of the trophy is a hologram of this gif playing endlessly. 

Where was I? Oh yes, rejoice baseball fans! With Houston's 10-0 loss to Cincinnati, the Astros have clinched their third straight 100-loss season! They are the 17th team to hit triple-digits three years in a row, however if you look at the list below it's really more like 12 teams:

Team	From	To	Losses
Houston Astros	2011	2013	313**
Kansas City Royals	2004	2006	310
Toronto Blue Jays	1977	1979	318
*New York Mets	1963	1965	332
*New York Mets	1962	1964	340
*Washington Senators	1962	1964	307
*Washington Senators	1961	1963	307
Pittsburgh Pirates	1952	1954	317
*Philadelphia Phillies	1940	1942	323
*Philadelphia Phillies	1939	1941	320
*Philadelphia Phillies	1938	1940	314
Boston Red Sox	1925	1927	315
Boston Braves	1922	1924	300
Philadelphia A's	1919	1921	310
St. Louis Browns	1910	1912	315
*Boston Braves	1910	1912	308
*Boston Braves	1909	1911	315

I've included asterisks for teams like the 1962-1965 Mets, who had four straight seasons and make the list twice (for years 1-3 and for years 2-4). They are joined by the 1909-12 Doves/Rustlers/Braves, the 1961-64 Senators 2.0, and the 1938-42 Phillies. The Phils hold the distinction of losing 100 games in five consecutive seasons.

Houston is only the second team since the original Blue Jays to go 100-100-100. Even with the slightly longer season, the list is dominated by teams from the days when there was less parity in the game.

Nine Astros saw action in all three seasons and they are: Jose Altuve, Carlos Corporan, Lucas Harrell, Jordan Lyles, J.D. Martinez, Bud Norris, Jimmy Paredes, Brett Wallace and Wesley Wright. Norris and Wright were dealt up in the standings earlier this year (to Baltimore and Tampa Bay, respectively) and were not present for the 100th loss, but they were there in spirit. They're all well behind Hall of Famer Chuck Klein, who was the only player to spend time with the Phillies during all five seasons of their record streak.

Here are the same teams listed by total losses in their three-year span:

Team	From	To	Losses
New York Mets	1962	1964	340
New York Mets	1963	1965	332
Philadelphia Phillies	1940	1942	323
Philadelphia Phillies	1939	1941	320
Toronto Blue Jays	1977	1979	318
Pittsburgh Pirates	1952	1954	317
Boston Braves	1909	1911	315
St. Louis Browns	1910	1912	315
Boston Red Sox	1925	1927	315
Philadelphia Phillies	1938	1940	314
Houston Astros	2011	2013	313**
Kansas City Royals	2004	2006	310
Philadelphia A's	1919	1921	310
Boston Braves	1910	1912	308
Washington Senators	1961	1963	307
Washington Senators	1962	1964	307
Boston Braves	1922	1924	300

The Astros will likely jump half of the remaining teams ahead of them and reach that upper (lower?) echelon of truly wretched clubs by season's end. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, as the rebuilding effort has gone well. Their six highest minor league affiliates all made the postseason and their farm system is regarded as one of the best in the game. Come 2014 I don't think they'll become the fifth team to drop 100 in four straight seasons.

Here is the list one more time with each team's seasonal loss total:

Team	Year	Losses
Boston Doves/Rustlers/Braves	1909	108
	1910	100
	1911	107
	1912	101
Boston Braves	1922	100
	1923	100
	1924	100
Boston Red Sox	1925	105
	1926	107
	1927	103
Kansas City Royals	2004	104
	2005	106
	2006	100
Houston Astros	2011	106
	2012	107
	2013	**100
New York Mets	1962	120
	1963	111
	1964	109
	1965	112
Philadelphia A's	1919	104
	1920	106
	1921	100
Philadelphia Phillies	1938	105
	1939	106
	1940	103
	1941	111
	1942	109
Pittsburgh Pirates	1952	112
	1953	104
	1954	101
St. Louis Browns	1910	107
	1911	107
	1912	101
Washington Senators	1961	100
	1962	101
	1963	106
	1964	100
Toronto Blue Jays	1977	107
	1978	102
	1979	109

Leading MLB in Runs without 30 Homers, 100 RBI or 100 Runs

UPDATE: David Ortiz got a little hot at the end of the year to finish with 30 homers and 103 RBI, so they ended up not duplicating the feat by the '68 Reds. I added the Red Sox to the chart at the bottom, as they still lacked a player with 100 runs scored.


The Red Sox are on their way to the American League East title and with 759 runs scored are also on their way to the major league scoring crown.

Boston is leading the majors in runs in an unusual way. David Ortiz is "only" on pace for 28 home runs and 99 runs batted in, which brought an interesting question from @matthewfjensen:  

@HighHeatStats Has there ever been a team to lead MLB in runs and not have a player score 100 runs, have 30 HR or 100 RBI? #RedSox
— Matthew Jensen (@matthewfjensen) September 11, 2013

Jacoby Ellsbury leads the Sox with 89 runs, but he's out indefinitely with a fracture in his right foot. At 79 runs, Dustin Pedroia might catch Ellsbury for the team lead, but he won't get to the century mark. Ortiz could certainly get hot in the team's final 16 games, but with Boston's magic number down to 10, he'll likely get less playing time down the stretch as the team rests up for a postseason run.


On the way to finding this team, I also wanted to find teams that paced the majors without having a player reach any one of the benchmarks, not just all three.

Each of the last 14 top-scoring teams had at least one player reach 30 homers, 100 runs or 100 RBI. The last leader without a 30-homer man was one of the great powerhouses in history. The 1998 Yankees scored 965 runs en route to a 114-48 regular season record. They did this despite the fact the Tino Martinez led the squad with only 28 home runs.

The last high-scorer that didn't have anyone score 100 runs was the 1990 Mets. Gregg Jefferies came home 96 times to lead the team while Darryl Strawberry got New York over the other two barriers with 37 homers and 108 runs batted in.

The 1984 Tigers were one of the most dominant teams of the last 30 years, but they are the last runs leader that failed to have a player reach two of the benchmarks. Kirk Gibson scored 92 runs and Lance Parrish drove in 98, but Parrish knocked 33 dingers to keep them above water here.

Fittingly, to find the only live-ball era top-scoring team without a 30-homer, 100-RBI or 100-run hitter you have to go all the way back to The Year of the Pitcher, 1968.

The Cincinnati Reds scored 690 runs to lead the major leagues. Even in today's age of relatively-suppressed offense, 13 teams are on pace to score 690 runs or more. In 2000, all 30 teams scored at least 708 runs.

Still a couple of years away from becoming The Big Red Machine, Cincy led the bigs in tallies with Pete Rose scoring 94 runs, Tony Perez sending home 92, and with Lee May hitting only 22 homers.


Here are the live-ball era teams that led the majors in runs scored despite having no player reach 30 homers, 100 RBI and/or 100 runs:

MLB Leader 2013 Red Sox	No 30 HR	No 100 RBI	No 100 R Jacoby Ellsbury (92)
1998 Yankees	Tino Martinez (28)
1991 Rangers	Juan Gonzalez (27)
1990 Mets			Gregg Jefferies (96)
1988 Red Sox	Mike Greenwell (22)
1984 Tigers		Lance Parrish (98)	Kirk Gibson (92)
1983 White Sox			Rudy Law (95)
1980 Tigers	Lance Parrish (24)
1978 Brewers			Larry Hisle (96)
1977 Twins	Larry Hisle (28)
1976 Reds	George Foster (29)
1975 Reds	Johnny Bench (28)
1972 Astros	Lee May (29)	Lee May (98)
1968 Reds	Lee May (22)	Tony Perez (92)	Pete Rose (94)
1964 Braves	Hank Aaron (24)
1963 Twins		Harmon Killebrew (96)	Bob Allison (99)
1958 Yankees		Mickey Mantle (97)
1954 Yankees	Mickey Mantle (27)
1948 Red Sox	Vern Stephens (29)
1945 Dodgers	Goody Rosen (12)
1944 Cardinals	Whitey Kurowski (20)
1943 Dodgers	Augie Galan (9)
1942 Yankees	Charlie Keller (26)
1934 Tigers	Hank Greenberg (26)
1925 Pirates	Glenn Wright & Kiki Cuyler (18)
1924 Giants	High Pockets Kelly (21)
1923 Indians	Tris Speaker (17)
1920 Indians	Elmer Smith (12)

Most of the 27 teams listed make the list for lack of a 30-homer man, especially all of those prior to 1958. The '84 Tigers, '72 Astros, '68 Reds and '63 Twins are the four teams that come empty in two of the categories. Even if Ortiz manages to get to 30 homers or 100 RBI, the Sox will be the first team in 23 years to lead the majors without a triple-digit run scorer.

Alfonso Soriano and Knocking Your 2000th Hit As a Yankee

Alfonso Soriano tallied his 2000th career hit on Sunday and he did it in style, swatting a home run off Justin Verlander in the Yanks' 5-4 win over Detroit.




Soriano is the 19th player to reach the 2000-hit plateau as a Yankee. The full list, courtesy of YES Network research guru Jeff Quagliata, is below:

Felipe Alou
Yogi Berra
Johnny Damon
Joe DiMaggio
Lou Gehrig
Derek Jeter
Willie Keeler
Kenny Lofton
Mickey Mantle
Don Mattingly
Johnny Mize
Paul O'Neill
Alex Rodriguez
Babe Ruth
Joe Sewell
Ruben Sierra
Alfonso Soriano
Bernie Williams
Dave Winfield


Let's take a look at each of these in further detail. The earliest ones have limited data, but I dug up what I could. The first four entries have no play-by-play data (and all I could do with Keeler was do the math to see that the hit was in 1903). Ruth and Gehrig's had two hits and faced two different pitchers on their milestone days, but without PBP data, we can't know which one was which. Sewell had three singles in his game, all off Lyons, who pitched a complete game. At least there's everything from DiMaggio on down.

Batter	Date	Opp	Pitcher	Hit	Inn	Career Hits	Hits with Yankees
Willie Keeler	1903					2932	1956 to 2929 (974)
Babe Ruth	8/2/1929	vs CLE		1B or 3B		2873	343 to 2860 (2518)
Joe Sewell	7/17/1932	vs CWS	Ted Lyons	1B		2226	1801 to 2226 (426)
Lou Gehrig	5/30/1935	at WAS		1B or 2B		2721	All
Joe DiMaggio	6/20/1950	at CLE	Marino Pieretti	RBI 1B	7th	2214	All
Johnny Mize	6/16/1953	vs SLB	Duane Pillette	RBI 1B	5th	2011	1782 to 2011 (230)
Yogi Berra	6/28/1961	at LAA	Ryne Duren	1B	4th	2150	1 to 2148
Mickey Mantle	9/17/1964	vs LAA	Fred Newman	1B	6th	2415	All
Felipe Alou	8/25/1972	at KC	Al Fitzmorris	RBI 1B	8th	2101	1802 to 2091 (289)
Dave Winfield	7/7/1986	at TEX	Mickey Mahler	RBI 3B	5th	3110	1135 to 2434 (1300)
Don Mattingly	7/23/1994	at CAL	Russ Springer	1B	7th	2153	All
Paul O'Neill	5/2/2001	at MIN	LaTroy Hawkins	1B	9th	2105	680 to 2105 (1426)
Ruben Sierra	6/22/2003	at NYM	Graeme Lloyd	1B	11th	2152	1492 to 1640, 1986 to 2147 (311)
Bernie Williams	6/10/2004	vs COL	Jason Jennings	1B	4th	2336	All
Kenny Lofton	8/25/2004	at CLE	Jake Westbrook	1B	4th	2428	1944 to 2019 (76)
Derek Jeter	5/26/2006	vs KC	Scott Elarton	1B	4th	3308	All
Alex Rodriguez	7/21/2006	at TOR	A.J. Burnett	3RHR	3rd	2906	1536 to 2906 (1371)
Johnny Damon Alfonso Soriano	5/30/2007 8/11/2013	at TOR vs DET	Brian Tallet Justin Verlander	1B Solo HR	2nd 4th	2769 2000	1790 to 2425 (636) 1 to 571, 1990 to 2000 (582)

So Soriano joins A-Rod as Yankees that homered for their 2000th hit (Keeler did not homer in 1903, so at least we know his hit wasn't a dinger). Rodriguez's blast was also the 450th homer of his career. Yesterday marked the seventh time that the hit came in the Bronx, with the first six hit across the street. Of the 15 for which we have PBP, Soriano becomes the sixth to drive in a run with their hit.