OVER AND OUT
Astros fans take loss hard as team’s reign as MLB champs ends
Astros fans arrived at Minute Maid Park on Thursday at the precipice. After the Astros’ heartbreaking loss to the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, they were on the edge, one game from elimination.
Had the luck, the skill and relentless drive that fueled their 2017 championship season run out?
The Astros and their fans entered Minute Maid Park hoping that it had not and that the team could make good on its last chance to keep their postseason dreams alive, to take the fight to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
“We got a game stolen from us yesterday,” complained Cameron Cruz, 23, walking toward Minute Maid on Thursday afternoon in a jersey and sporting a replica 2017 World Series Champions ring. “But God is bigger than a 3-1 lead, and I’m praying he can deliver one for us.”
Like many fans across Houston, he was still smarting from umpire Joe West’s call that ruled Jose Altuve out due to “spectator interference” on a play many felt should have been called a home run. He was pinning his hopes on a rested Justin Verlander, who was back on the mound, a supportive (and still wrathful) stadium of home team fans behind
him.
Inside Minute Maid, more than 40,000 spectators filled the stands, twirling orange towels, the buzz of cheers filling the park. But the anticipation of victory turned to sadness as the Sox went ahead 4-1 late in the game.
“They’re not playing with any emotion tonight,” Alex Bertulli said of the Astros as he and other fans streamed out of the park. “We’re terrible. No heart. We’ve lost all faith in our team.”
Around town, hours earlier fans were filled with hope for their team and pitching ace Verlander.
In Montrose, a round of beers in, Carlos Ovies paced the patio at Griff ’s Irish Pub, stewing.
“We’re going to kick their butts tonight because we should have done it last night,” Ovies said. “We got screwed last night. That umpire got it wrong.”
As Ovies exited the bar — he also was headed to the game — he vowed to return to the Montrose watering hole afterward, win or lose.
The crowd on Wednesday had been especially moody because of the heavily scrutinized play, said bartender Jackson Alford.
“People weren’t pleased,” said Alford, who could hear their roaring jeers from the kitchen. “It gets pretty loud when they get riled up.”
Some disgruntled fans chucked their napkins at a TV in protest, said Donna Catlett, who has owned the bar for 17 years with her twin sister, Debra.
“It got crazy,” said Debra. “They were standing up, booing.”
For two other fans, John Geiss and John Dettor, fate, or divine intervention, or luck, was the last thing on their mind as they rode MetroRail’s red line train to Minute Maid. They reminisced about the season. About the day the Astros clinched their division. But surely that couldn’t compare to Game 5 of the World Series last year, or Game 3 of the 2017 ALCS against the Red Sox.
They tried not to think about the stakes. They distracted themselves worrying about the $180 they’d each spent springing for their seats in the 400 section instead.
“The only good thing, if we lose, is that we would save a lot of money on World Series tickets,” joked Geiss, a retired electric technician.
He worried this year’s postseason run wouldn’t seem as significant after last year’s post-Harvey championship.
Dettor disagreed. Teams rarely have such successful seasons back to back, he said, and the Astros are made up of mostly the same players as last year, only with a better pitching staff.
Geiss shrugged. They would go to as many games as long as the Astros remained in the running, expense be damned.
“It all comes down to tonight,” he said.
Connor Barney, 28, a Red Sox fan far from home, was hoping his team could shut out the Astros.
Thursday, he was thinking back to the 2004 World Series, when the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals, ending the Sox’s 86-year championship drought, the “Curse of the Bambino.” It had been a chilly playoff season then. Whatever the outcome of Thursday’s game, he could happily savor it in Houston’s temperate autumn.
Inside the ballpark, the Briley family took the Astros’ streak of bad luck personally. Instead of wearing their usual T-shirts and caps to Minute Maid, Jena and her 8-year-old twins, Kira and Caleb, wore neon orange curly wigs, blue face paint and — for Caleb — an electric blue mustache.
“We came to the game Tuesday and it didn’t have such a great outcome, so I thought maybe we need to up our game,” Jena yelled over the roar of the crowd. “Something’s gotta help.”
They hoped the date — Oct. 18, the twins’ birthday — was also a good omen.
For most of the game, it didn’t appear to work.
By the middle of the sixth inning, Alberto Gonzalez was shouting at a TV on the upper concourse.
He split an order of supreme nachos with his 15-year-old son Angelo and grumbled about the missteps he’d seen Thursday evening.
Why were Jake Marisnick and Roberto Osuna still in the game, he moaned. Why’d the coaches have Bregman batting first? Why hadn’t the Astros scored yet?
“I’m worried; I’m not going to lie,” Gonzalez said. “In Boston we were great, except for Game 2. But now I’m seriously worried.”
As boos erupted from the stadium, he threw up his hands.
“And now Kemp dropped the ball,” he sighed. “What is going on?”
The first wave of disappointed fans began pouring out of the stadium at Crawford and Texas just before the Astros scored their first run of the game, in the bottom of the seventh inning. Some had to get up for work in the morning, or relieve the baby sitter; some were just tired.
By the bottom of the ninth, 22year-old Sam Proctor had seen enough. He, his brother Rafe and two friends headed for the exit near the ground-level team store.
“I don’t want to see Boston celebrate on our home turf,” Proctor said.
The group was already down after the Game 4 loss, and another loss now was like a punch in the gut.
“It’s worse because there aren’t any more chances,” said Kiley Tucker, who accompanied the Proctors. “It’s over.”
Moments later, four hours after the game began, Tony Kemp flied out left. Andrew Benitendi reeled it in, dashing Astros’ fans dreams and ending the team’s season.
Fans trickled toward the exit, some in tears.
The loss was especially tough for Annie Brown, who had expected to celebrate her 19th birthday at midnight with an Astros win.
Instead, she adjusted her cap and dabbed her eyes with a crumpled brown napkin. She had become a fan watching the Astros during the World Series last year, her mother said.
This season, Annie guessed she watched at least 90 percent of the games. She had held out hope for a World Series repeat until Kemp’s fly to left.
“I thought tonight would make up for last night,” said Annie, who said she would still try to celebrate her birthday with friends Friday evening.
“There’s always next season,” she said.