Houston Astros catcher Alan Ashby raises his arms as Los Angeles first baseman Steve Garvey looks toward right field as Ashby's fly ball clears the fence for a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to win Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 6, 1981 at the Astrodome. (File photo/Associated Press)
The Houston Astros have hit seven walkoff home runs in their postseason history with six of those coming in the past 22 years, from Hall of Famer Jeff Kent's 2004 home run that beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series to Yordan Alvarez's monstrous shot that ended Game 1 of the 2022 American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners. For 23 years, there was one that stood alone: Alan Ashby's 1981 home run that electrified the 44,836 fans at the Astrodome that night. Ashby, who will go into the team's Hall of Fame along with the late Phil Garner before Saturday's game against the Mariners, spent 11 seasons with the Astros and still ranks first or second among catchers in franchise history in games played, home runs, hits and runs scored. He also served as a TV and radio broadcaster for the team, but one moment on the field stands alone. After coming within six outs of making their first World Series in 1980, the Astros returned the next year and made the postseason again, this time thanks to a strike-shortened season that led to the first-half winners facing the second-half winners in baseball's first postseason division series. The Astros and Dodgers, predictably, were locked in a pitcher's duel in Game 1 of their best-of-five series with Nolan Ryan and Fernando Valenzuela on the mound, but when Dave Stewart relieved Valenzuela in the ninth, the Astros went to work. Craig Reynolds delivered a two-out pinch-hit single, then Ashby turned around the first pitch he saw from Stewart and sent it soaring high down the right-field line. "If this thing's not a Dome, it would have wound up in Galveston," Astros closer Dave Smith told the Houston Chronicle later that night. Well, maybe not quite. It was a substantial shot for the already enormous Astrodome though, landing about midway up the orange seats in the right field mezzanine. "I don't know what other players think about, but I sit around a whole lot and think of a ninth-inning home run going over the wall," Ashby told the Houston Post after the win. "The only way to do better is to do it in the World Series."
Ashby was a stoic player, but he showed a lot of emotion during his home run trot, leaping off the AstroTurf and throwing his hands in the air. As it turns out, some of that came from the bad blood that existed between the Astros and Dodgers from years in the National League West. Ashby specifically remembered the conclusion of the 1980 regular season when the Dodgers swept the Astros to force a tie-breaking game. The Astros ended up winning Game No. 163, but it came with a cost when Ashby crashed into Dodgers catcher Joe Ferguson in a collision at the plate and Ferguson, who recorded the out, reacted by kneeing Ashby in the ribs, leading to an injury that hampered him in the NLCS against the Phillies. "I don't usually do that, but I remember two or three Dodgers doing the same thing when they homered against us late last year," Ashby told the Houston Chronicle after his home run. "I remember Ferguson doing it when he hit a homer to beat us that last series at L.A." Ashby was never a power hitter, only twice hitting double-digit homers in a season, but he had gotten hot late in the final five weeks of the regular season, going 26-for-83 (.313) with all four of the home runs he hit that year coming in that stretch. Even so, getting beat by the Astros' eight-hole hitter - Ryan was on deck when Ashby homered - was a shock in the Dodgers clubhouse. "It wasn't a bad pitch," Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia said. "He hit that ball about as well as he can hit a ball." The Astros would take Game 2 at home for a 2-0 series lead, but went to Los Angeles and lost three straight, managing just two runs in the final three games of the series. Still, for Ashby, it was the highlight of his 17-year big league career, which also included a go-ahead home run in a Game 4 win in the 1986 NLCS against the New York Mets. "It's a daydream come true," Ashby told the New York Times during the 1981 postseason. "It is just like a Walter Mitty story. When you hit a home run to win it with two outs in the ninth, well, it was just the biggest moment in my career." Subscribe There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢. This article originally published at Night Astros' Hall of Famer Alan Ashby lit up Astrodome with franchise's first playoff walkoff homer.