The Houston Astros are not happy with the reception they got from their fans in the team’s opening game of the American League Wild Card series against the Chicago White Sox.
Houston barely made the playoffs this season and won the AL West despite owning a record of 81-81.
After limping into the postseason, expectations were not high for the team’s outlook – especially considering they’d be playing their games at 4:00pm local time.
When the team jogged out onto the field, they found Daikin Park was much more empty than expected. The announced attendance may have been 34,011 – still a little over 7,000 under capacity – but it looked much more vacant than that.
Adding insult to injury, the crowd ruthlessly booed the team throughout the 6-3 defeat to Chicago. The Astros’ season is on the verge of ending after giving up eleven hits to the White Sox.
After the game, Astros players speaking to the media (via The Athletic) made it clear they were none too enthused about their fans’ poor showing or their vocal displeasure.
Houston Astros players weren’t happy about being booed by their own fans at home
A poorly attended Wild Card Game 1 in Houston was made worse by jeers from the crowd
The Astros did not play well, falling to the White Sox and putting their season on the brink
‘The fans here are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have to earn that right to bring this team back to that position,’ said reliever Bennett Sousa, who was booed when he threw two sliders in the dirt in the seventh inning.
‘That being said, when this team was in their first (playoff) series 10 years ago, Minute Maid Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, it’d probably be loud as s***.’
Sousa added: ‘As a team and as a staff, we know how we feel about our guys. And if that’s felt differently from the outside — that’s OK. We can live with that.
‘But as a team, we know that we lay it on the line every day. We’ve been working our ass off. We’ve been playing hard. We got in the playoffs. We just really need the support of our fans.’
Astros star Yordan Alvarez said through an interpreter, ‘It’s what we expected. Frustrated we weren’t able to get them the victory that we wanted to give them, but tomorrow we’re going to try and go out and give them the win they deserve.’
Christian Walker, who committed a crucial throwing error in the first inning, remarked: ‘Each year is its own thing. You can’t assume a team is going to win 100 games every year. It’s really, really hard to get to the postseason. We had to do a lot of things right along the way. We had to face a lot of adversity.’
Walker added: ‘It’s extremely frustrating as a home player. We’re here, playing at home; we need cheers. We need energy. We don’t need boos. What purpose does that serve in that moment?
‘Whatever fans are feeling, we’re feeling it tenfold. We’re the ones out there. We’re the ones in the fight. We worked our butts off this whole season to put ourselves in this spot, and for guys to get booed, it’s frustrating.’
The Astros will look to stay alive when they send pitcher Hunter Brown out to face Chicago’s Sean Burke in a do-or-die Game 2.
