The year was 1994 and after 115 games the Astros were 66-49, a half-game out of first place in the National League Central and also had the fifth best record in the National League. Then the strike happened and the Astros, as well as baseball and all it's fans finished last.
After the players and owners finally worked it out part way through the 1995 season, baseball had 144 games left to play before the post-season. The Astros would fall just short of post-season play with a 76-68 record. That was good enough again for fifth best in the league, but this time they were a game out of the wild card spot and nine games out of first place in the National League Central.
The 1995 squad scored 747 runs and allowed 675 runs, which calculates out to a 79-65 Pythagorean win-loss record. That's three wins more than their actual record, so they underperformed a bit. Had they won three more games they would have most certainly been in the playoffs.
The offensive leaders on the team were Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, with third basemen Dave Magadan and Derek Bell also providing above average offensive production.
The defensive leader was Tony Eusebio who lead the team in Baseball-Reference's defensive WAR (dWAR).
The pitching leaders were Shane Reynolds and Mike Hampton.
The weakness of this team was its pitching and defense, the strength was it's offense. But really the strike didn't rob the fans of just one World Series, it robbed fans of two seasons with a World Series in between. Never again...