Again with the 5,000 K's in the background and those 1980's Astros' uniforms. Ugh! While he, as the back says, racked up some impressive numbers in Houston he wasn't as dominating as he had been with the Angels or would be with the Rangers. Ryan hadn't wound down it was simply the lack of a DH and I also remember manger Hal Lanier having an early hook for Ryan. In 1986 and 87 Ryan started 64 games and finished 1. His first year in Texas-6 complete games.
People tend to think of Ryan as just having a dominating fastball but his out pitch was a big curveball. For example on June 8th 1980 in the top of the 5th inning at the Astrodome Ryan faced the San Francisco Giants Johnnie LeMaster. Ryan blew a fastball past LeMaster for a called strike one. Second pitch LeMaster was gunning for the fastball but was still to slow as he swung and missed. Now LeMaster knows its got to be a fastball as he loads up and Ryan drops his agonizingly slow curveball that Le Master swings wildly at and makes the first out of the inning. That was how Ryan did it.
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