The 2012 Houston Astros season was the 51st season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 48th as the Astros, 51st in the National League (NL), 19th in the NL Central division, and 13th at Minute Maid Park, The Astros entered the season as having finished in last place in the NL Central with 56–106 record and games behind, the first time in franchise history they had lost at least 100 games.
The 2012 season was the Astros' final season as members of the National League. Per the approval of the sale of the team from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane by the league, the Astros agreed to move to the American League (AL), and to be situated in the American League West division, effective the following year. It was also the first season with Jeff Luhnow serving as general manager. On April 6, pitcher Wandy Rodríguez made the Opening Day start for the Astros, who hosted the Colorado Rockies, but were defeated, 5–3.
Second baseman Jose Altuve was selected to the MLB All-Star Game for the first time in his career, and played for the National League. In the first round of the June MLB draft, the Astros chose shortstop Carlos Correa as the first overall pick, and pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. at number 41.
On August 18, manager Brad Mills was relieved of his duties and Tony DeFrancesco served in his stead as interim manager. The Astros concluded their season and NL tenure with a 5–4, walk-off defeat to the Chicago Cubs. Houston ranked in last place in the NL Central with a 55–107 record, 42 games behind the division-champion Cincinnati Reds. At the time, it established a new worst-record in franchise history, breaking the record set the season before, while being just the second year in which Houston had lost 100 or more games.
Offseason The Astros concluded the campaign with a record, for sixth and last place within the NL Central division trailing the division-champion Milwaukee Brewers by 40 games, for the most defeats in the major leagues. The 106 losses represented a new club record for their first 100-loss season, surpassing 97 losses each during the , and campaigns. In congruence with a period of transition for the franchise, on May 16, 2011, the club announced their sale from Drayton McLane to a group of investors headed by Jim Crane for the price of $680 million ($ million), which, at the time qualified for the second-highest transaction for an MLB franchise, trailing $845-million ($ million),purchase of the Chicago Cubs by the family trust of Joe Ricketts in .
Regular season Summary April To pay homage and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Houston Astros franchise, the players donned retro Colt .45s jerseys for play on April 10 and April 20. During the 1962, 1963, and 1964 seasons, Houston played as the Colt .45s prior to being renamed the Astros in 1965.
+ Opening Day starting lineup Player Position 1 Jordan Schafer Center fielder 27 Jose Altuve Second baseman 14 J. D. Martinez Left fielder 45 Carlos Lee First baseman 19 Brian Bogusevic Right fielder 23 Chris Johnson Third baseman 15 Jason Castro Catcher 9 Marwin González Shortstop 51 Wandy Rodríguez Pitcher Venue: Minute Maid Park • Final: Colorado 5, Houston 3 Sources:
On April 6, the Astros hosted the Colorado Rockies for Opening Day, as Wandy Rodríguez made the start for the Astros. Rodríguez worked innings, allowed six hits, two walks and three runs. However, none of the runs charged to Rodríguez were earned as the Astros committed four errors on the way to a 5–3 defeat. In the bottom off the first inning, Jose Altuve drew a base on balls and, two batters later, scored when Carlos Lee lined a single to center field. Rockies starter Jeremy Guthrie tossed seven inning with the runs allowed to earn the victory. Colorado scored the three unearned runs in the third inning, when Rodríguez, fielding Dexter Fowler's sacrifice bunt, committed a throwing error.
On April 13, Miami native J. D. Martinez hit the first-ever home run in the newly-opened Marlins Park. With a runner on in the eighth, he hit an Edward Mujica offering into the Clevelander Bar beyond the left-field wall to tie the contest with the team in their first season having been rebranded the Miami Marlins. Lucas Harrell also uncorked the first wild pitch at Marlins Park during this game.
Right-hander Bud Norris assembled a four-strikeout inning on April 24, the fourth in club history.
Jose Altuve produced his first career four-hit game on April 25, scored thrice, doubled and drove in a run. J. D. Martinez and Brian Bogusevic also doubled, and Martinez collected three hits and three RBI. Wilton López (2–0) worked a scoreless sixth inning to earn the victory, David Carpenter (1) and Wesley Wright (2) each were credited with holds, and Brett Myers earned the save (3).
May As of May 25, following a four-game winning streak, the Astros' record stood at . Houston trailed the first-place Cincinnati Reds by four games.
June
Coming off their first 100-loss season in club history, the Astros' record on June 13 looked on track for to dip below that threshold as it had stood at prior to play versus the San Francisco Giants. However, starter Matt Cain tossed the first perfect game for San Francisco to defeat the Astros, 10–0. Two of Jordan Schafer's at bats represented Houston's closest opportunities to escape history at their expense. In the fourth, Schafer stung a liner past first baseman Brandon Belt that was called foul, but struck out after ten pitches. In the seventh, he smoked a line drive into right-center that Gregor Blanco snagged on a spectacular, fully-extended diving play. Jason Castro, Houston's 27th batter in the top of the ninth inning, grounded out to Joaquín Arias for the final out of the game. In parallel, this was the first time in Astros' franchise history that no batters reached base safely, and the first time the had been no-hit since Carlos Zambrano did so on September 14, 2008, for the Chicago Cubs. It the fifth time overall the Astros had been no-hit and second by the Giants. The Astros' performance slumped, going the rest of the way.
Dallas Keuchel made his major league debut on June 17. He tossed five innings against the Texas Rangers, allowing four hits, four walks, one hit and one run. His first strikeout was of Brandon Snyder swinging in the second inning. The Rangers scored 7 times in the bottom of the sixth inning on the way to a 9–3 win over Houston. Astros pitching yielded 12 hits and 9 bases on balls.
On June 23, Dallas Keuchel earned both his first major league victory and complete game, in his second major league start. J. D. Martinez (8), Jordan Schafer (3), and Jose Altuve (5) all homered in support as the Astros cruised to an 8–1 win over the Cleveland Indians. Keuchel scattered six hits, one walk, struck out three, and obtained a game score of 73.
MLB All-Star Game Jose Altuve was selected to represent the Astros for his first MLB All-Star Game, hosted at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Altuve replaced Dan Uggla, faced Jim Johnson during the top of the eighth inning for his lone plate appearance, and was retired on a groundout. The National League won, 8–0.
September—October The Astros hosted the St. Louis Cardinals on September 26 for their final home contest as a National League club, and won, 2–0, behind Bud Norris' two-hit gem. Norris (6–13), who fanned seven and issued no walks, earned a game score of 81. During the bottom of the fourth inning, Jose Altuve's deep blast (6) off Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter (0–1) snapped a scoreless tie. Brett Wallace also singled home a run for Houston. Wilton López closed out the contest for the final innings to convert the save (8). The victory snapped a personal 12-game losing streak for Norris, who won for the first time since May 21 earlier in the season.
The Astros played their final bout as a National League team on October 3, 2012, at Wrigley Field. Édgar González was Houston's starting pitcher, opposite of Chicago's Travis Wood. Justin Maxwell doubled and homered—also Houston's final home run in the NL. Leading off the top of the ninth with the score tied, 4–4, Jimmy Paredes singled off Carlos Mármol for Houston's final NL hit; however, Mármol fanned Tyler Greene looking to close the Astros' half of the ninth and the team's final NL at bat. The contest ended in a walk-off victory for the Cubs, when in the bottom of the ninth inning, Bryan LaHair singled home Darwin Barney off Héctor Ambriz (1–1) for a 5–4 Cubs win, handing Ambriz the defeat.
Performance overview
After May 25, the Astros played to a record. For the second consecutive season, the Astros endured the most losses in baseball, exiting the season with a showing. This season also produced a new club record for losses, exceeding that established the season prior (106). The Houston Astros concluded the campaign in sixth and last place in the NL Central division, 42 games behind the division-champion Cincinnati Reds.
The Astros concluded their National League tenure with an all-time record of 3,999 victories and ,4,134 defeats for a winning percentage. Through two prior waves of division realignment in and , the move to the American League for 2013 signaled the end of 51 continuous seasons situated as direct competitors with the Reds—who, along with the Astros—were the only teams who first were situated from the at-large National League bracket starting from the Colt .45s expansion season in , to form the National League West division in 1969, and then move to the NL Central in 1994.
Carlos Lee departed the Astros ranking second-most in club history with four walk-off home runs, second to José Cruz (6).
League standings National League Central
NL Wild Card
Records vs. opponents
Roster 2012 Houston Astros RosterPitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Manager
Coaches
Game log Legend Astros win Astros loss PostponementBoldAstros team member
|- style="background:#fbb;" | 1 || April 6 || Rockies || 3–5 || Guthrie (1–0) || Rodriguez (0–1) || Betancourt (1) || 43,464 || Minute Maid Park || 0–1 || L1 |- style="background:#bfb;" | 2 || April 7 || Rockies || 7–3 || Harrell (1–0) || Moyer (0–1) || || 23,962 || Minute Maid Park || 1–1 || W1 |- style="background:#bfb;" | 3 || April 8 || Rockies || 3–2 || López (1–0) || Brothers (0–1) || Myers (1) || 14,195 || Minute Maid Park || 2–1 || W2 |- style="background:#bfb;" | 4 || April 9 || Braves || 8–3 || Happ (1–0) || Beachy (0–1) || || 17,095 || Minute Maid Park || 3–1 || W3 |- style="background:#fbb;" | 5 || April 10 || Braves || 4–6 || Hanson (1–1) || Weiland (0–1) || Kimbrel (1) || 22,036 || Minute Maid Park || 3–2 || L1 |- style="background:#fbb;" | 6 || April 11 || Braves || 3–6 || Delgado (1–0) || Rodríguez (0–1) || Kimbrel (2) || 18,225 || Minute Maid Park || 3–3 || L2 |- style="background:#fbb;" | 7 || April 13 || @ Marlins || 4–5 (11) || Webb (1–0) || Lyon (0–1) || || 30,169 || Marlins Park || 3–4 || L3 |- style="background:#bfb;" | 8 || April 14 || @ Marlins || 5–4 || Cruz (1–0) || Bell (0–2) || Myers (2) || 31,659 || Marlins Park || 4–4 || W1 |- style="background:#fbb;" | 9 || April 15 || @ Marlins || 4–5 (11) || Gaudin (1–0) || Carpenter (0–1) || || 34,232 || Marlins Park || 4–5 || L1 |- style="background:#fbb;" | 10 || April 16 || @ Nationals || 3–6 || Strasburg (2–0) || Weiland (0–2) || Rodríguez (2) || 16,245 || Nationals Park || 4–6 || L2 |- style="text-align:center; bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | 11 || April 17 || @ Nationals || 0–1 || Gonzalez (1–0) || Rodríguez (0–2) || Lidge (2) || 17,886 || Nationals Park || 4–7 || L3 |- style="text-align:center; bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | 12 || April 18 || @ Nationals || 2–3 || Mattheus (2–0) || F. Rodriguez (0–2) || Rodríguez (3) || 14,520 || Nationals Park || 4–8 || L4 |- style="text-align:center; bgcolor="#bbffbb" | 13 || April 19 || @ Nationals || 11–4 || Norris (1–0) || Jackson (1–1) || || 18,045 || Nationals Park || 5–8 || W1