Alan Ashby

And it'll bring up Al Ashby, the switch hitting catcher.

The catcher, number eight, Alan Ashby.

Alan Ashby hitting 2-11, two homers, seven runs batted in.

0-3 in the series.

He caught in 20 nights game.

Hello again, everybody.

This is Milo Hamilton along with Alan Ashby.

Hi again,

everyone.

Or no, Andy Ashby is his name, right? Or Al.

There, I, there's an Alan Ashby.

Andy Allen.

Yeah, wait, he went to Park Hill.

Batting sixth and left field was Jose Cruz.

Batting seventh and catching was Alan Ashby.

Batting eighth at shortstop was Dickie Thon.

And batting ninth and pitching was Bob Knepper.

That brought up Ray Knight.

I'm sure Ray would not have minded being Smith's third consecutive walk, which would have forced in the tying run.

But Dave Smith continued to have pitches not go his way with Brocklander, and he started drawing with the umpire from the mound, and Alan Ashby started drawing about it from behind the plate.

Ultimately, Knight told them both off for complaining, and Dickie Thon, standing at shortstop, starts arguing with Knight, Fortunately, the arguing eventually stopped and baseball resumed, and Knight was able to hit a fly ball to Kevin Bass in right field.

Batting sixth in left field was Jose Cruz.

Batting seventh and catching was Alan Ashby.

Batting eighth at shortstop was Craig Reynolds.

And batting ninth and pitching was Nolan Ryan.

In the bottom of the first, Ryan retired the Mets in order, including consecutive strikeouts to Dykstra and Backman to start off the game.

In the top of the second, Gooden allowed a leadoff single to Kevin Bass and a follow-up single to Jose Cruz, putting runners on first and third with nobody out.

But Gooden then struck out Alan Ashby, and he got Craig Reynolds to hit into a pivotal ground ball double play, ending the inning.

Now, it was a controversial double play, with umpire Fred Brocklander calling Reynolds out at first.

And so those '80 Astros teams and seeing the playoffs in '80 and '81 and then '86, when I was a bat boy and very involved with the organization, that group of guys stayed together.

You know, Terry Puhl, Craig Reynolds, Allen Ashby, Jose Cruz, you know, Mike Scott, Billy Doran, Tony Scott.

You know, you just go down the line.

Bob Knepper, all of these guys, uh, you know, Cesar Cedeño and Enos Cabell, they were our city's team for a decade.

Batting sixth in left field was Jose Cruz.

Batting seventh and catching was Alan Ashby.

Batting eighth at shortstop was Dickie Thon.

And batting ninth, the pitcher, Mike Scott.

That brought us to the top of the second, where Sid allowed a leadoff single to Glenn Davis.

Sid may have thought he was home free after next consecutively striking out both Kevin Bass and Jose Cruz.

But Alan Ashby next came up to the plate, and on a 3-2 count, Ashby hit the ball to deep left field.

It sailed over the fence into the visitor's bullpen for a two-run home run, putting the Astros on top 2-0.