2013 Houston Astros season
| 2013 Houston Astros | ||
|---|---|---|
| League | American League | |
| Division | West | |
| Ballpark | Minute Maid Park | |
| City | Houston, Texas | |
| Record | 51–111 (.315) | |
| Divisional place | 5th | |
| Owners | Jim Crane | |
| General managers | Jeff Luhnow | |
| Managers | Bo Porter | |
| Television | CSN Houston (Bill Brown, Alan Ashby, Geoff Blum) | |
| Radio | Sportstalk 790 (Robert Ford, Steve Sparks, Milo Hamilton) KLAT (Spanish) (Francisco Romero, Alex Treviño) | |
| Stats | ESPN.com Baseball Reference | |
| ||
The 2013 Houston Astros season was the 52nd season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 49th as the Astros, and 14th at Minute Maid Park. Further, it was the Astros' inaugural season as members of both the American League (AL) and AL West division, after having spent their first 51 seasons in the National League (NL). The Astros entered the season with a 55–107 record and last-place finish in the NL Central division, their worst-ever record to date, as well the second consecutive of the first two 100-loss seasons in franchise history.
The 2013 season was the first for Bo Porter as manager, the 21st in Astros' franchise history, succeeding Tony DeFrancesco.
The Astros won their first game as an American League team, 8–2 on Opening Day, March 31, hosting their in-state rivals, the Texas Rangers. It was also the 4,000th win in franchise history. In the first round of the June MLB draft, the Astros selected pitcher Mark Appel as the first overall pick. Catcher Jason Castro represented the Astros at the 2013 MLB All-Star Game.
The Astros continued their exceptionally poor play from 2011 and 2012, winning another new franchise-worst 51 games, and fewest by any MLB club since the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks, who had an identical 51–111 record. Perhaps the lowest point of the season came when the Astros finished with a 15-game losing streak. Other lowlights included winning only 12 series (2 of which were sweeps, none outside of the AL West), getting swept 18 times, finishing 45 games out of first place, winning just 2 games against the rival Texas Rangers and 4 games against the Oakland Athletics, getting shut out 14 times (twice in a row against the Rangers and the Rays), and yielding 10 runs or more in 17 games.