The White Sox took Game 1 in Houston, but all the team could talk about after was their fans – or lack thereof, apparently.
The Astros heard the boo birds during their 6-3 loss at Dalkin Park, where the announced crowd was 34,011 — about 21 percent below a sellout for the playoff game.
Reliever Bennett Sousa called the fan base “definitely spoiled,” having made the ALCS seven times straight from 2017-23.
The Astros have the worst record of any playoff team (81-81) in MLB history, having snuck into the playoffs after winning the floundering AL West.
“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,” Sousa told reporters, per The Athletic. “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.”
They employed a bullpen game to start this series and the boos began in the first two innings.
Those boos became increasingly louder by the seventh inning, drowning out any cheers that may have been coming while the Astros tried to rally.
AJ Blubaugh walked three of the first five batters he faced as the opener and one scored before Chicago added two more in the second to make Houston’s bullpen plans go up in flames.
For Sousa, he didn’t do a lot to inspire faith after entering a 5-2 game in the seventh inning and immediately allowing two base runners.
When Braden Montgomery stepped into the box with runners on second and third with out, Sousa threw two sliders to catcher Yanier Diaz, who couldn’t handle them, and one run scored on a wild pitch.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I was pretty pissed off in the dugout when I came in, about the boos,” Sousa said, according to The Atheltic. “This team has laid a lot on the line to be in this position to give the fans a playoff game — a playoff series. We want their support.”
Baseball is a results-oriented business and asking for cheers with that kind of performance is asking a lot.
Still, the stadium failing to sell 7,157 tickets — based on the announced crowd — is rather alarming.
“It’s extremely frustrating as a home player,” Astros first baseman Christian Walker said, per The Athletic. “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.”
Home fans did cheer for the team at different points of the game, but those were mostly few and far between.
Beloved star Jose Altuve earned cheers from the fans when he legged out an infield single in the eighth, and rookie pitcher Miguel Ullola received some positive feedback when he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning to keep the game 3-0.
Ace righty Hunter Brown will take the mound in Houston in an elimination Game 2 on Wednesday, though it is not currently a sellout according to the official team site, as there are hundreds of tickets still for sale in dozens of sections.
The lack of enthusiasm hasn’t stopped Houston-based furniture salesman Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale from wagering $515,000 on the Astros to win the World Series, a bet that would pay out $13 million if they win — though that looks like an even bigger long shot now than it did before the playoffs started.
