Published: September 29, 2008 03:56 pm         

Astros finish outside of playoffs

Here’s a baseball first: A team moves into playoff contention with a spectacular second-half surge, only to have its momentum interrupted by a hurricane.

HOUSTON — Here’s a baseball first: A team moves into playoff contention with a spectacular second-half surge, only to have its momentum interrupted by a hurricane.

The Houston Astros won 14 of 15 games and had the best record in baseball after the All-Star break with three weeks left in the season. Then Ike struck Texas on Sept. 13, handing the Astros two unwanted days off and a pair of rescheduled games against the first-place Chicago Cubs — in Milwaukee, of all places.

With a pro-Chicago crowd cheering against them, the Astros were no-hit by Carlos Zambrano in the first game after the storm, the first of five straight losses. Houston won six of its last nine but couldn't recover in the playoff chase, finishing 3 games behind Milwaukee for the wild card.

“You can ask those ‘what if’ questions. What if we’d won 120 games?” said slugger Lance Berkman, who hit .312 with 29 homers and 106 RBIs. “The reality is, we didn’t do it. We’re a pretty good team. I think our record is about what you’d expect, if you look at this team with an open and honest assessment of what we have in here.”

The Astros finished 86-75, a 13-victory improvement from 2007. They went 42-24 in the second half and finished third in the NL Central — not bad, considering they were in last place July 8.

“Third place sounds a lot better than fourth,” said Houston manager Cecil Cooper, completing his first full season. “A lot of good things happened for us this year. We’ve just got to build on this for next year.”

The starting pitching was the question mark at the end of spring training, and six months later it’s the most glaring need for next year.

Roy Oswalt will again anchor the rotation in 2009. Like the Astros, Houston’s ace reversed a shaky start to finish 17-10. He won 11 of his last 13 decisions and set a franchise record with 32 1-3 scoreless innings between Aug. 27 and Sept. 11.

The Astros retired Craig Biggio’s No. 7 in August, then said goodbye to catcher Brad Ausmus, who wants to play closer to his San Diego home after 10 seasons in Houston.

     

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