Houston Astros star Zack Greinke silenced the Oakland Athletics’ crowd on Thursday night. Greinke pitched six shutout innings and struck out four batters in an Astros 8-1 win. Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman added to Houston’s scoring with back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning.
However, A’s fans jeered the Astros with boos during the pregame introductions. In addition, fans held up signs with trashcans on them and chanted “cheaters” at the Astros. A’s fans gave a loud cheer when Houston’s Carlos Correa was hit by A’s starter Chris Bassitt‘s fastball in the fourth inning.
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The jeering from the crowd was not enough to affect an Astros squad that steamrolled the A’s. Aided by a pair of home runs by Bregman and Brantley, the Astros absolutely dominated Oakland. The other big offensive contributions came from designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, who hit an RBI double and a sacrifice fly, finishing the game with 3 RBI.
“Got to hear some boos, finally. That wasn’t fun to listen to, I didn’t think, but we played good so it didn’t matter,” Greinke said. “Hopefully we’ll keep playing good and it won’t be as big of an issue.”
“That’s fine, this is a veteran team,” Brantley said. “We’ve been in the World Series, we’ve been in the playoffs.” The hitter continued, “They can boo, they can yell, they can do whatever they want. But at the end of the day we have each other’s backs, and that’s all that matters,” Brantley said.
The jeers are not limited to the Athletics. Every other team across Major League Baseball will want to instigate the Astros. This stems from the Houston’s infamous cheating scandal that occurred in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. A league investigation found that Houston used a camera to illegally spy and steal the opposing team’s pitching signals. The team would then relay it to hitters by banging on trash cans. The cheating helped the Astros win the World Series in 2017.
After the investigation, the league suspended Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one year, and they were subsequently fired by Houston. The organization was fined $5 million and forfeited first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.
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