Astros shouldn't expect sympathy from Yankees fans after awful opening month
Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve reacts after striking out swinging against the Yankees during the third inning at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Houston Astros are 12-23 after Tuesday night’s 10-3 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx. Yankees fans are not feeling bad for them.
The Yankees are partly responsible for the Astros’ wounded state because of their season-opening four-game sweep at Minute Maid Park. Houston manager Joe Espada, a former Yankees coach, said before Tuesday’s series opener that the late March outcome left “a bitter taste” for the Astros.
Bitter? No one is more bitter than Yankees fans when it comes to the Astros and the four times from 2015-22 that Houston eliminated the Yankees from the postseason.
The capper, of course, was the 2017 ALCS, which was part of the sign-stealing Astros’ tainted World Series title — one that Major League Baseball has decided is just as historically legitimate as any of the Yankees’ 27 World Series crowns.
That season still sticks in Yankees’ fans craws. Just ask Jose Altuve, or as Yankees fans continued to croon to him on Tuesday, “[expletive] Altuve.”
The cheering when Altuve went down after fouling a ball off his leg in the fifth was especially classy.
Not that the Bronx cheers have worked on Altuve, who against the Yankees hit .320 with two home runs in the 2017 ALCS. Two years later, with Yankees fans in full-throated disapproval, Altuve was the 2019 ALCS MVP, when he hit .348 with the series-ending walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman in Game 6.
That big moment presumably came without the help of trash cans (proven) or hidden buzzers (alleged).
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had the quip of the day Tuesday when he suggested that the fans’ vitriol directed at Altuve was having the opposite of its desired effect.
“I think,” Boone said, “maybe we should go with the golf clap from now on.”
But it’s not just Altuve. He hit .188 in the 2022 ALCS. The Astros swept the Yankees, anyway.
After going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts Tuesday, Altuve is batting .336 with seven home runs. The Astros’ problems have been a bevy of pitching injuries, poor offensive performances by pending free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman and first baseman Jose Abreu (who was voluntarily demoted to the Astros’ minor-league complex to work on his broken swing), and a terrible start by closer Josh Hader (6.14 ERA, as many losses — three — as saves).
The signing of Hader to a five-year, $95 million free-agent contract looked like a masterstroke by the Astros. The long-haired lefty was supposed to create a super bullpen along with deposed closer Ryan Pressly. It hasn’t worked at all.
General manager Dana Brown was asked on MLB Network on Tuesday if the Astros could become sellers.
“No,” he said. “I can’t envision that. This ballclub is too good . . . I can’t predict any scenario where we become sellers.”
So . . . back up the truck, right? Brown has to say what he said, as no GM is going to tell his owner or fan base in early May that the club is not going to turn it around.
Let’s say the Astros don’t recover and simply plod along until the trade deadline as a non-contender. That’s when Houston could have the largest impact on the pennant races.
Is there any doubt that Justin Verlander would — after a theatrically long period of hemming and hawing — once again waive his no-trade clause to go to a contender? He did so when he was a Met last season after proclaiming his undying love for the Empire State Building, Citi Field and Mr. Met.
Verlander started Tuesday night, and for the first time in four starts this season, didn’t have it. He allowed seven runs in five innings, including a three-run home run to Alex Verdugo, an RBI single by Verdugo, a two-run homer by Anthony Volpe and a solo shot by Giancarlo Stanton. But at age 41, with an ERA of 2.08 entering the game, Verlander can still pitch.
Another thing Yankees fans are bitter about: That the Yankees didn’t acquire Verlander from Detroit in 2017. Instead, he was traded to Houston, and crushed the Yankees’ World Series hopes as the ALCS MVP.
The Yankees tried to sign Verlander in 2021, offering him a one-year $25 million contract. Verlander decided to stay in Houston for two years and $50 million before jumping to the Mets in 2023 for even more millions in what ended up a four-month stay.
Verlander seemed to enjoy his time in New York. It’s highly unlikely the Astros would deal him to the Yankees — bet on the Dodgers as Verlander’s next team if he does get traded — but wouldn’t that be a nice gesture on Houston’s part? To, you know, make up for the whole cheating thing?
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
