Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
To every sport that isn't the NBA (way to be different, guys) most seasons, much like anything else in our lives can be segmented into years. It's structure, and people like structure (except the NBA, apparently). It also gives us a mutual moment to pause and take stock on what cool stuff happened during our planet's latest solar lap. Unless of course you are the NBA.
I'll stop. But I'm right.
In any case 2018 is all but done with us, whether you like it or not. So let's be nostalgic before she slams the door in our face. Let's take a look back at the top moments that made Houston sports so much fun to watch.
Honorable Mentions
The Gerrit Cole trade in January, beating the Cowboys on Sunday night football with Deandre Hopkins' wide receiver version of Marshawn Lynch's beast mode run, and literally every single dugout celebration the Astros gave us last season
5. Bregman goes unconscious in June
By the time June rolled around, the Astros were sitting in the AL West driver's seat and looked poised to make another championship run. Yet while the Astros looked all but unhittable, their offense struggled to keep pace. The bats were slow to wake, that is, until Alex Bregman apparently met with Morpheus, took the red pill, and broke the Matrix for the month of June. In an absolute flurry of offense, Bregman jump-started the Astros by batting .306 for the month with 11 home runs, 30 runs batted in, 9 doubles, and 24 runs scored in the span of 26 games.
Bregman put a sweet exclamation point on the month during the last week by earning player of the week from June 25 - July 1. In that frame he batted .406 with 5 doubles, 5 home runs, and 10 RBI. He would go on to carry the Astros offense for the entirety of the of the regular and postseason until ultimately falling just short of a second consecutive World Series appearance.
4. James Harden breaks basketball
I like to play the NBA 2K franchise like a lot of people. Sometimes I like to just decimate another team while I'm playing so when I feel that way I have two options:
- Turn down the difficulty and go to town.
- Play my nephew (ooo sick burn).
On a cold night in late January, James Edward Harden turned down the difficulty on basketball. He picked up to proverbial sticks and put the Orlando Magic on the wrong side of history as the team that The Beard posted the NBA's first ever 60-point triple double.
60 points. 10 rebounds. 11 assists.
The total set a new record high not only for Harden, but for the Rockets franchise as a whole. The feat also gained praise from twitter-land:
James Harden was conceived in NBA Jam https://t.co/UlBNAODCl9— Marcus Thompson (@Marcus Thompson) 1517369258.0
Okay @JHarden13 you’re not playing fair!!!— DWade (@DWade) 1517373381.0
Harden's pièce de résistance of the season essentially notarized a conclusion we all expected...
3. James Harden, MVP
Eleven games into last season Harden began to piece together his resume with a 56-point, 13-assist performance against Utah. In December he put together back-to-back 50-point games. Then there was the 60-point triple-double. It was at that point the Harden took pole position for the MVP race and never looked back.
Even then, there were skeptics that they would actually hand the trophy over to him. In the three years preceding, Harden had almost equally astounding seasons, and yet he finished among the crowd rather than at the podium. Two of the previous three years he had been MVP runner-up, so it wasn't as if the award came out of nowhere.
Harden averaged 30.4 points, 8.8 assists, and 5.4 rebounds on the season. He also led the league in 50-point games, and 3-pointers while guiding the Rockets to a league best 65-17 record. The results were clear. It was time to hand the hardware to The Beard, and that's exactly what happened.
2. Texans rip off nine straight
Houston fans were licking their chops for the 2018 NFL season to kick off. The Texans were fresh off of an injury-decimated mulligan of a 2017. They had gone 4-12, and weren't even able to use the draft pick that a record like that rewards you because it had been traded to Cleveland on draft night.
After what felt like the longest offseason in franchise history, Houston was back. Quarterback Deshaun Watson was back. JJ Watt was back. The Texans had their team and they were ready to rock.
The 2018 season's starting gun fired off and the Texans fell flat on their face week one, while other teams stepped on their backs in weeks two and three. Houston's lofty season hopes were immediately snuffed out as the Texans gazed upward in disbelief from their 0-3 start.
According to oddsshark.com, since 1980 there had been 173 teams to start 0-3. Of those teams, five had gone on to make the playoffs. According to history, the Texans were looking at a 2.8 percent chance to become team number six.
In the overused words of the sage Lloyd Christmas "So you're telling me there's a chance."
It started in week 4 when the Texans finally found their footing after escaping Indianapolis with an overtime win thanks to a questionable fourth down decision from Colts head coach Frank Reich. Texans wide receiver Deandre Hopkins then helped ensure win number two against the Cowboys with an inhumanly clutch catch and run in overtime to set up a game-winning field goal.
Even still, the Texans were 2-3 on the season.
The Texans caught another break in Buffalo for win number three, before stomping the Jaguars the following week to put them above .500 for the first time all season.
"Ok, but look at who they've beaten. They play Miami next, and they've looked pretty good."
Texans win, 42-23.
"Ok, good win. But they take on the Broncos next week and that defense is--"
Texans win, 19-17.
"Alright, but the Redskins are 6-3. Let's see how they play against a--"
Texans win, 23-21.
It would be two more weeks of the same before Houston finally fell to the team with whom their 9-game win streak began, the Indianapolis Colts. By then it didn't matter, as Houston had gone from the basement to one of the best records in the league.
1. Rockets and Astros set franchise win records
If the 2017 Houston Texans season left a bad taste in your mouth, the 2017-2018 Rockets and the 2018 Astros seasons provided one hell of a mouthwash. While both teams fell one round short of their respective championship ambitions, both teams finished 2018 with more wins in a single season than any other in their franchise's histories.
It was apparent that this wasn't going to be just another season with the Rockets after cruising to a 16-4 start in their first 20 games. They weren't just beating teams, either. They were embarrassing them, with an average victory margin of 10.3 points per game.
The Rockets wouldn't cross schedules with the Astros until early April, and by then they had already surpassed their previous record of 58 regular season wins. The Rockets would finish with 65, tied for the 20th best season in NBA history.
Just as the the Rockets were barrelling full speed into the postseason with bad intentions, the Astros were unveiling the city's first World Series banner with designs of a repeat on their mind. Anchored by one of the most dominant pitching rotations the league had ever seen, the Astros set out to do just that.
The Astros found themselves at 20-10 after the first full month thanks to their dominant pitching. It would take time for the bats to wake up but when they did it was full steam ahead.
Led by an MVP caliber performance from third baseman Alex Bregman and aces Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, Houston tore through their schedule which to the tune of 103 wins, 37 of which were blowouts (5+ run victory).
Looking back
Making lists like these at the end of a year is always fun, but it seems like things are always left out. Houston sports in 2018 can't just be defined by five moments. And even then, those moments on their own aren't what make them special.
What makes any of these moments truly special is how they were shared and - most importantly - with whom. An adventurer named Christopher McCandless once scribbled into the margins of a book he owned a quote that drives that point home:
"Happiness only real when shared."
Starvation-induced syntax errors aside, he was right. He had spent an entire life wandering and living alone and only realized when it was far too late that his favorite memories - his favorite moments - were the ones that he had shared with others.
Among the moments illustrated above, the most important moments personally where the ones happening simultaneously that these sports helped facilitate.
While the Texans were defeating the Cowboys, I was reconnecting with one of my best friends for the first time in months. He may have shown up late, but he spent $36 on an Uber to get there and didn't think twice about it. It's what friends do.
While the Rockets were winning 65 games, an acquaintance became one of my closest friends. The season started with "Yeah, I guess I'll go with you," and ended with "I just got to Hobby Lobby and bought props and posters for the game, let's do this." Long live Fashion Cop-ela.
While the Astros were closing out their greatest regular season, my old man drove out and caught a game with me for the first time, just me and him. The Astros lost 4-2 that night, but it was my favorite game of the 36 I went to last season.
And while James Harden is currently averaging 35.8 points for the month of December, my friends and I watch and are reminded of one of the biggest Rockets fans any of us knew that was taken from us way too soon. When you lose someone like that, it's not the triple-doubles or the winning streaks that matter. It's the slow Sunday ball games in a half empty ballpark that you watch from the center field bar, or the mid game texts halfway through a season decrying our perimeter shooting that do. Those are the moments that matter. Those are the moments that I'll miss the most.
So let's smile at what happened in 2018, and let's be hopeful for what can happen in 2019. Go Astros, go Rockets, go Texans.
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”