ASTROS FAIL TO SWEEP, BUT FANS KEEP THE FAITH
Hope for Game 3 gives way to ‘we’ll get ’em next time’
By the seventh inning Sunday, it wasn’t looking good for the Astros.
That’s when Boston scored six quick runs to break open the third game of the American League Division Series, dashing Houston’s hope of sweeping the Red Sox.
But Keith Gibbons and Sondra Carter remained calm.
“We’re not worried,” Gibbons said. “We’ve got it.”
“You’ve got to be a diehard,” Carter added.
The couple had joined more than 4,000 other fans at Minute Maid Park for a free watch party. Sunday’s game was in Boston, so Houston baseball lovers turned out to watch the TV broadcast on the ballpark’s giant video board.
Gibbons and Carter are longtime Astros fan — Gibbons since the mid-1970s, Carter since she moved to Houston in ’92.
“I’ve followed every game, even when we lost 100 games every year,” Gibbons said. They knew their team’s future didn’t rely on a single game. A loss Sunday was just a bump in the road.
Fans put the “party” in watch party all day Sunday. They showed up in T-shirts that said “Houston Strong” and “October Ready,” jerseys that bore the names Correa and Altuve. They waved their orange “Earn History” rally rags, got team logos painted on their faces and wore balloon sculptures on their heads.
And they hit the concession stands hard, downing chicken tenders and snow cones, hot dogs and Saint Arnold beer.
The diamond was covered with a tarp, but it was easy to forget the team wasn’t actually on the field.
Standing near the Phillips 66 Home Run Pump, Bon Castaneda took a selfie with his brothers-in-law and posted it to Facebook.
“We go to the games about six times a year, even when they’re at their worst,” he said. “Instead of watching it at home, I thought, ‘Let’s do it with the crowd.’ ”
Castaneda wore an orange José Altuve jersey and orange-laced Nikes. And his beer? “It’s an orange Shock Top. Even my beer is orange.”
Castaneda went to his first Astros game in 1982, and he’s been a fan in good times and lean ones. This year? “We’ve got this,” he said. “We’ve got this.”
Marco Rodriguez and Yesenia Ruiz came to the watch party with Rodriguez’s brothers, Luis and Carlos. Luis bought season tickets for the first time this season, and they’ve all been to at least a game a week.
The Rodriguez brothers have been fans since 2005, the year the Astros went to the World Series.
“I was like 12 or 13 years old,” Marco Rodriguez said. “I remember being at home just watching it on TV, and it was awesome.”
As his team fell behind on the way to a 10-3 loss, he wasn’t upset.
“I knew it was going to be hard going to play at Fenway,” he said.
Sarah and Lynn Wooley weren’t worried about the loss, either. They’ve been fans for more than 40 years.
“Boston may win one game, but Houston’s going to take the series,” Sarah Wooley said.
Her husband agreed. “Top to bottom, it’s the best team they’ve ever put on the field,” he said. “It’s been a great year. I think they can go all the way.”
Orbit in on the fun
All afternoon the Astros Shooting Stars cheerleaders wandered the concourse, posing for photos with babies and teenage boys. With guidance from Astros mascot Orbit, fans did the wave.
But as the Astros fell behind, the crowd began to thin. By the end of the seventh inning, Jacqueline Guevara and Edward Maldonado had a section of seats nearly to themselves.
The two have a tradition of going to the opening game each season, but this year they missed it — so they made a pact.
“We were confident they’d make it to the playoffs, so we said we wouldn’t set foot in the stadium until we were in the playoffs,” Guevara said. “So we went to Thursday’s (first postseason) game, and now we’re here. And if they go to the World Series, we’ll definitely be here.”
Hope springs eternal
In the top of the eighth, the fans who remained were upbeat enough to sing along with “Sweet Caroline” from a Hyundai commercial.
Adam Taylor and his daughter, Emily, 8, were among the fans who remained to the bitter end.
“I think the Astros could do way better,” Emily said.
“They SHOULD have done way better,” her dad agreed, but he had faith.
He’s followed the Astros since he was a kid.
“They’ve scored seven or eight runs in an inning before,” he said. “That’s why I’m staying.”
But finally, even the faithful accepted the Astros weren’t going to sweep the Red Sox. But they have faith the Astros will play deep into the postseason.
“Even if we don’t win this season, we’ve got a team that plays like veterans,” Adam Taylor said. “We’re like the Braves in the ‘90s at this point — we can win the decade, basically. We’re going to have a great team for years.”