The Astros were mercilessly booed for four straight hours on Tuesday night, hearing the jeers the moment they stepped on the field for batting practice until Carlos Correa flew out to end a 7-3 loss to the Yankees.
For Houston, visiting the Bronx for the first time since 2019 and the first time since news of the team’s trash can cheating scandal broke, it was about the welcoming they expected.
“Nothing surprises me,” manager Dusty Baker said. “At least there wasn’t any violence. They can say whatever they want. It sounded like a packed house tonight, even though it wasn’t. We kind of expected that reception.”
Capacity was limited to roughly 11 thousand, but the Yankee Stadium crowd made it feel like a sellout, pouring down boos on Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman, three pillars of the 2017 and 2019 Houston teams that bounced the Yankees from the ALCS in both of those seasons, with the legitimacy of those victories being called into question in light of the scandal.
Correa and Altuve went hitless on the night, with Altuve easily receiving the worst of the treatment from the hostile crowd, that spent hours making sure it was known that they hadn’t let a pandemic season get the Astros off the hook, especially Altuve, who edged out Aaron Judge for the American League MVP in 2017.
“They were extremely hard on Altuve [Tuesday],” Baker said. “He’s exerting a lot of effort, maybe too much effort, if there is such a thing.”
The Yankees themselves didn’t resort to any type of retaliation in their first matchup with Houston since game six of the 2019 ALCS, which Altuve ended with a game-winning home run, but they did take care of business and win the game, much to the delight of the Bronx crowd, armed with signs, inflatable trash cans and plenty of chants in a night with no silence from beginning to end.
“I guess it was probably about what was expected,” Zack Greinke said after allowing a first-inning home run to Giancarlo Stanton and lasting just four innings. “When you’re pitching you don’t really notice that stuff, so I’ll have to pay more attention the next couple days.”
Baker and Greinke weren’t on the team in 2017, but Bregman was, and said he wasn’t paying much attention to the boos thrown his way, but he was noticeably fired up after giving the Astros a 1-0 lead on his first-inning home run. But his throwing error in the sixth with the bases loaded turned a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 deficit, the difference in the game.
“I think we just tried to focus on taking good swings, competing and worrying about baseball,” Bregman said, dismissing the Yankee Stadium atmosphere.
Houston may brush off the treatment from Yankee fans, but that likely won’t stop the crowd from coming back with the same level of hostility on Wednesday night, the middle game of a three-game set.
“We’ll probably get more of the same tomorrow and the next day,” Baker said.
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