April 7, 1992: Braves’ Tom Glavine beats Astros for first time with two-hit shutout on Opening Day

“There are worse places to open a baseball season than the Astrodome, but no team is based in Death Valley or on Alcatraz. … [Atlanta Braves manager Bobby] Cox counts himself among the game’s traditionalists and thinks the Dome should be torn down and a shopping mall erected in its place. He hates it for any number of reasons, but primarily because his teams almost never win in Houston.” – Bill Zack, author of Tomahawked!1

 

Since Houston’s Astrodome opened in 1965, the Atlanta Braves had faced the Astros there five times on Opening Day – and had lost every game.2

Since making his major-league debut against them on August 17, 1987, Braves ace Tom Glavine had started 13 games against the Astros – and had never earned a victory.3

But even though the Braves limped to Texas on April 7, 1992, for another Opening Day matchup inside the newly reconfigured Dome,4 all that futility was forgotten when they put both losing skids to rest. In support of a two-hitter from Glavine, the Braves scratched out just enough offense to squeeze past the Astros, 2-0, propelling their National League pennant defense in the right direction.

“I haven’t had much success here, but I don’t mind pitching in the Dome,” the 26-year-old Glavine said after his second career two-hitter. “It has always been a great pitcher’s park. I’ve actually pitched some doggone good games here, but I’ve been shut out here three or four times. It’s nice to get the monkey off my back here.”5

Glavine, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner,6 kept the Astros off-balance by strategically mixing in off-speed pitches and placing his offerings with pinpoint location. He had nine strikeouts, allowed only two runners to reach second base, and retired 12 straight hitters at one point, putting to rest any concerns that the nagging left shoulder bursitis he faced during spring training would hinder him.7

But despite Glavine’s dominance, Atlanta’s hampered offense almost failed him again in front of 34,761 Tuesday-night fans inside the Dome.8

Houston, coming off a last-place finish and one of the worst seasons in franchise history,9 countered with 25-year-old Pete Harnisch, the team’s fifth Opening Day starter since 1976,10 and he barely gave an inch either.

Harnisch had posted a deceptive 12-9 overall record in 1991 – his first season in Houston after three years with the Baltimore Orioles – because he suffered from a lack of run support. In his nine losses, Houston’s offense scored only 12 runs. He led the NL with a .212 opponents’ batting average and finished fifth with a 2.70 ERA, helping him earn his only career All-Star Game appearance.

He ended the ’91 season as the only primary Astros starter with a winning record and did not seem intimidated by the Braves.11 He went 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA in six starts against Atlanta and had beaten Glavine, 1-0, with a six-hitter in the Astrodome on June 25.

On Opening Day 1992, Harnisch seemed to pick up where he left off, setting down 11 straight Atlanta batters at one point. He held the Braves, who were without second baseman Mark Lemke and had outfielders David Justice and Deion Sanders playing through injuries,12 to only three baserunners for six innings, leaving Glavine to wonder if his losing skid against the Astros would continue.

“For about six innings,” Glavine said, “I thought, ‘Here we go again, we can’t score against these guys.’”13

Sanders tried to spark a rally from the onset, sending Harnisch’s fourth pitch of the game into shallow center for a single. Two pitches later, Sanders attempted to steal second, but 1991 NL MVP Terry Pendleton poked a sinking liner into center. Steve Finley dashed in for the catch, and his one-hop throw to first doubled off Sanders, who had already reached second by the time the catch was made.

Finley singled in the bottom of the first and Pete Incaviglia, one of Houston’s leading offseason acquisitions,14 rifled a single to center in his first NL at-bat in the second. But Houston would not have another runner until Andújar Cedeño took a high 3-and-2 pitch for a walk to open the sixth. Harnisch laid down a bunt on the next pitch, but catcher Greg Olson quickly snared it and forced Cedeño at second.

“We’re not an offensive juggernaut,” said fourth-year Astros manager Art Howe, “so we have to make every opportunity count.”15

“If we could have gotten [Cedeño] over,” he added, “we might have had a shot there.”16

The Braves instead made the game’s first serious scoring threat in the seventh. Ron Gant,  aiming to become the first player with three consecutive 30-home-run, 30-stolen-base seasons,17 reached on an infield single that ricocheted off Harnisch’s foot. After Justice flied out, Gant advanced on a balk. Sid Bream also flied out, but Jeff Blauser walked to put two on with two outs. Olson hit a sharp grounder to Cedeño – who made 18 errors in 66 games as a rookie in 1991 – but the shortstop cleanly fielded the smash for an inning-ending force play at second.

In the bottom of the seventh, Glavine walked Houston’s leadoff batter for the second inning in a row – this time reigning Rookie of the Year Jeff Bagwell – but retired the next three hitters in order. Then, in the eighth, Glavine helped his own cause.

After pinch-hitter Jerry Willard popped out, Glavine worked a full count against Harnisch and lashed the payoff pitch into right for his second single of the game, a solid continuation of his Silver Slugger-winning offensive campaign from 1991.18

“I wasn’t happy with the way I pitched him,” Harnisch said. “I had him down in the count, and then I overthrew a couple of fastballs. Then, I’m thinking, ‘Don’t walk the pitcher,’ and I gave him a pitch that was a little too fat.”19

Harnisch also hung his next pitch – a changeup to Sanders, who ripped it just outside of the right-field foul pole. After a conference with rookie catcher Scott Servais, Harnisch’s next pitch was an inside fastball that instead zoomed up and over the plate, and Sanders launched it into right for a double and his second hit of the game.

Glavine became the first runner in the game to reach third base, and he scored to break the scoreless tie when Pendleton flied out to right. Gant drove the next pitch, a hanging slider that Harnisch admitted was a mistake, down the third-base line for an RBI double and 2-0 Braves lead.20

“It’s great to play behind [Glavine] because he always keeps us in the game,” Gant said. “All we needed was a few runs, and we finally scored some in the eighth.”21

Glavine punctuated his only career shutout of the Astros22 by striking out four of the final six batters to end Atlanta’s four-season Opening Day losing streak.23 It was the start of another sterling campaign for Glavine, who again won 20 games and threw a career-high five shutouts. He started his second straight All-Star Game and finished as the runner-up to soon-to-be-teammate Greg Maddux in Cy Young Award voting.24

The Braves – who were not expected to contend for the playoffs in 1991, let alone win the pennant25 – had looked to boost their roster during the offseason, considering that there had not been a repeat champion in the NL West since the 1977 and ’78 Los Angeles Dodgers.26

Ultimately, the Braves made few changes, as trades to acquire stars Barry Bonds and Benito Santiago never materialized, but it did not matter as Atlanta overcame early-season struggles to win 98 games and return to the World Series for the franchise’s first back-to-back pennants since 1957 and ’58.27

In addition to Glavine’s accolades, starters John Smoltz (35 starts), Steve Avery (35), and Charlie Leibrandt (31) remained durable after none of them missed a turn in the rotation in 1991. Offensively, Pendleton led the NL with 199 hits and finished second in the MVP voting to Bonds; and two-sport standout Sanders had a breakout season with a .304 average and league-leading 14 triples in only 97 games.28 Atlanta’s other outfielders, Gant, Justice, and Otis Nixon, also piled up valuable contributions.29

In the West, Houston’s budding young core sought to emulate the Braves and pull off their own worst-to-first season after closing 1991 last in the standings. They suffered their third straight season-opening setback but improved to 81-81 by season’s end to finish fourth.

 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin. Special thanks to John Fredland for research assistance.

Photo credit: Tom Glavine, Trading Card Database.

 

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent statistics and the box scores. He also used information obtained from the Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, Macon Telegraph, Columbus (Georgia) Ledger-Enquirer, Houston Post, and Houston Chronicle, and Tom Glavine with Nick Cafardo, None But the Braves: A Pitcher, a Team, a Champion (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU199204070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1992/B04070HOU1992.htm

 

Notes

1 Bill Zack, Tomahawked!: The Inside Story of the Atlanta Braves’ Tumultuous Season (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 39.

2 The Astros beat the Braves at home on Opening Day in 1967 (6-1), 1975 (6-2), 1977 (3-2), 1979 (2-1), and 1989 (10-3). Houston also won 2-1 in a season-opening game at Atlanta in 1973. The Astros beat the Braves on Opening Day in 1997 (2-1) at the Astrodome, but as of 2025 the teams had not met again to open a season.

3 Glavine had beaten every other NL team by the end of the 1991 season. In his 13 starts against Houston, he had taken eight losses. Three times, the Braves eventually won a game he started in extra innings. Among his losses were final scores of 1-0 (April 20, 1988, and June 25, 1991); 2-0 (April 28, 1991); 3-1 (August 2, 1990); and 3-2 (September 22, 1988). The Opening Day shutout seemed to turn the tide. From 1992 until he left the Braves after the 2002 season, Glavine went 15-2 with a 2.50 ERA in 22 starts against the Astros in the regular season and 2-0 in three postseason starts.

4 The Astrodome featured new dimensions for 1992. The outfield walls were brought in five feet, making the new outfield distances 325 feet down the lines, 375 to the power alleys, and 400 to dead center. The height of the wall, which had some areas stand as tall as 29½ feet, became a uniform 10 feet. The changes were thought to bring more offense and power to Houston, which saw the home team hit only 27 home runs in 1991. In the 81 games at the Astrodome in ’91, 36 total players combined to hit only 71 home runs. In 1992, Houston players hit 49 home runs at home, while 45 total players hit a combined 90 home runs in the 81 games at the Dome.

5 Neil Hohlfeld, “For Openers, Glavine Has ’Em Cy-ing,” Houston Chronicle, April 8, 1992: 1C.

6 Glavine easily earned the honor after picking up 19 of 24 first-place votes. He tied with John Smiley for the NL lead with 20 wins and tied Dennis Martínez with an NL-best nine complete games while carrying a 2.55 ERA and striking out a career-high 192 batters. Glavine recorded a Baseball-Reference pitching Wins Above Replacement value of 8.5, placing him far ahead of Martínez (5.8) and Jose Rijo (5.5) among NL pitchers. Glavine’s overall WAR of 9.2 also led the NL (Barry Bonds finished second at 8.0), and the only player in the majors with a better total WAR was American League MVP Cal Ripken Jr. (11.5).

7 Glavine was scratched from a spring training start on March 18 and diagnosed shortly thereafter. By combining rest and therapy, he quickly recovered and threw six shutout innings 10 days later.

8 The game had a paid attendance of 25,318. The overall attendance of 34,761 included about 10,000 first responders who received free tickets from Astros owner John McMullen. The paid attendance was the smallest on Opening Day in Houston since 1986, when 22,935 paid to watch the Astros host the San Francisco Giants.

9 The Astros had a 65-97 record in 1991, the second-worst showing in the majors. It was the third-worst season in franchise history behind a 64-97 record from 1975 and a 64-96 mark from their debut season in 1962. Houston also went 65-97 in 1965.

10 Those starting in the 16 years before Harnisch were J.R. Richard (1976 to 1980), Joe Niekro (1981, 1983, and 1984), Nolan Ryan (1982, 1985, and 1986), and Mike Scott (1987 to 1991), who announced his retirement in November 1991. Harnisch made another Opening Day start in 1994.

11 Rookie Ryan Bowen made 13 starts and compiled a 6-4 record, while a fellow rookie, reliever Al Osuna, posted a 7-6 record on top of his 12 saves.

12 Lemke did not start due to a hamstring injury, but he entered the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and drew a walk in his only plate appearance. He did not start until the sixth game of the season. Before the game, it was uncertain if Justice would play. In 1991 he missed nearly two months with a back injury, and the same ailment flared up as spring training wound down. He started on Opening Day and went 0-for-4, and the Braves placed him on the disabled list after he hit .059 in the season’s first five games. Sanders played with a hairline fracture through the base of the fifth metatarsal bone of his left foot, and he attributed his ability to play with the injury to his mindset as a football player for the Atlanta Falcons.

13 I.J. Rosenberg, “Glavine Muffles Astros 2-0,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 8, 1992: E1.

14 Houston featured nine new players on its Opening Day roster. Many of those newcomers did not play on Opening Day. Included were free-agent signings reliever Joe Boever, outfielder Pete Incaviglia, outfielder Chris Jones, closer Doug Jones, reliever Rob Murphy, and third baseman Denny Walling; rookies infielder Juan Guerrero and starter Butch Henry; and catcher Ed Taubensee, who was acquired via a trade. In addition, catcher Craig Biggio moved to second base to give rookies Taubensee and Scott Servais a chance to platoon behind the plate.

15 Chris Haft, “Astrolog,” Houston Post, April 7, 1992: B5.

16 Chris Haft, “Astros Draw a Blank for Openers,” Houston Post, April 8, 1992: C-1.

17 Gant broke out in 1990 with 32 home runs and 33 steals and followed up with 32 homers and 34 stolen bases in 1991, helping him win a Silver Slugger Award. He made his first All-Star team in 1992 and finished the year with only 17 home runs but 32 steals.

18 Glavine led all NL pitchers with a .230 batting average in 1991, helping him win the first of his four career Silver Slugger Awards (also 1995, 1996, and 1998). With his win in 1998, he broke the record for the most Silver Slugger Awards for a pitcher, which was held by Rick Rhoden and Don Robinson. From 1999 to 2003, Mike Hampton picked up five straight awards to break Glavine’s record. In 1992 Glavine collected hits in his first four starts and hit .247, second to Dwight Gooden (.264), who won the Silver Slugger.

19 Alan Truex, “Harnisch’s Efforts Wasted,” Houston Chronicle, April 8, 1992: 1C.

20 Rick Cantu, “Braves Shut Out Astros,” Austin American-Statesman, April 8, 1992: D1.

21 Cantu.

22 In five other starts against Houston later in his career, Glavine was pulled after seven scoreless innings. In this game, Houston’s four baserunners were the fewest in an Opening Day complete game since Rick Rhoden allowed only three as the New York Yankees shut out the Minnesota Twins on April 5, 1988. There had also not been an Opening Day shutout in the majors since 1989, when Charlie Hough, the 41-year-old Texas Rangers veteran, shut out the Detroit Tigers on April 4. Baltimore’s Rick Sutcliffe shut out the Cleveland Indians the day before Glavine’s shutout, but otherwise, the last Opening Day shutout was Hough’s.

23 Atlanta’s last Opening Day win was also a shutout, Rick Mahler’s effort in 1987. Houston had not been shut out on Opening Day since 1981, when the Dodgers beat the Astros 2-0 behind Fernando Valenzuela’s first start of his Cy Young campaign.

24 Glavine went 20-8 with a 2.76 ERA, while Maddux went 20-11 with a 2.18 ERA for the Chicago Cubs. Maddux picked up 20 of 24 first-place votes and had a 9.1 Baseball-Reference WAR compared with Glavine’s 3.7. Maddux signed with the Braves for the 1993 season.

25 Atlanta went from worst in 1990 (65-97) to first in 1991 (94-68). The Braves finished with the third-best record in the majors behind the Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64) and Minnesota Twins (95-67).

26 Not only had there not been a repeat division champion, most of the division winners tumbled in the standings the next year. The 1978 division champion Los Angeles Dodgers finished third in the West in 1979. The 1979 Cincinnati Reds finished third in 1980. The 1980 Astros finished third overall in 1981 but won the second half of the strike-shortened season. The 1981 Reds (best overall record) finished sixth in 1982, while the 1981 Dodgers (winners of the NL Division Series) finished second in 1982. The 1982 Atlanta Braves finished second in 1983. The 1983 Dodgers finished fourth in 1984. The 1984 San Diego Padres finished tied for third in 1985. The 1985 Dodgers finished fifth in 1986. The 1986 Astros finished third in 1987. The 1987 San Francisco Giants finished fourth in 1988. The 1988 Dodgers finished fourth in 1989. The 1989 Giants finished third in 1990. The 1990 Reds finished fifth in 1991. The Braves eventually broke the trend, repeating as division champions in 1992.

27 On May 26, the Braves fell seven games under .500 and seven games behind in the standings but from then on went 78-37 to win the NL East by eight games. They defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in a memorable seven-game NL Championship Series but lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in a six-game World Series.

28 Sanders, an All-Pro defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons who enjoyed a 14-year Hall of Fame football career from 1989 to 2005, looked overmatched in 1991, hitting .191 with six extra-base hits and a -1.0 Baseball-Reference WAR. Pushed into the lineup on Opening Day primarily because Otis Nixon had to complete a 60-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy in 1991, Sanders opened the season on a 14-game hitting streak. Nixon missed the first 16 games of the season, but Sanders still found plenty of playing time even after Nixon returned and David Justice overcame his back injury.

29 Each of them had Baseball-Reference WAR values of at least 3.0, and when combined with Sanders and Pendleton, the Braves had the most hitters in the NL with at least a 3.0 WAR.