Astros get taste of baseball in age of COVID

The familiar first beats blared before Justin Verlander took the mound. Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” doubles as the ace’s anthem, though his longtime warmup music often is drowned out by thousands of fans screaming in adulation.

All was quiet Thursday afternoon. Verlander popped his catcher’s mitt amid the music. The Astros even kept the expletive-free version they play during a regular-season game — anything to make this feel familiar.

“It was so important to treat today like a regular-season game — to have the walk-up music, to

have all of it, and pitch with silence, pitch without people in the stands, because that’s what we’re going to be dealing with,” Verlander said. “Me personally, I haven’t pitched in a game like that in 25 years.”

Results of Thursday’s four-inning intrasquad scrimmage felt secondary. More pressing was the Astros’ adjustment to the new normal of 2020. They played four innings in an empty stadium while trying to adhere to Major League Baseball’s long list of safety protocols. Mastering both elements is crucial in the two weeks before the regular season is scheduled to start.

Verlander led Team Biggio to a 1-0 win over Team Bagwell, the group containing most of the Astros’ everyday position players. The teams combined for one hit — Kyle Tucker’s RBI single in the first inning.

Team Bagwell occupied the home dugout. Team Biggio, composed mostly of prospects training at the University of Houston, congregated along the thirdbase side. The players training at Minute Maid Park took their normal rounds of pregame batting practice and infield.

A scoreboard operations

employee doubled as a public address announcer, introducing each batter to the empty ballpark. Players young and old were accompanied by their preferred walk-out music. Unlike other clubs around the country, the Astros did not pump in crowd noise.

“I guess we can kind of get used to what it’s going to be like for however long,” Myles Straw said. “I’m not sure what they’re trying to do with people getting inside the stadium, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s how it’s going to be. Yeah, it’s nice just playing in front of nobody right now and getting used to no atmosphere.”

Straw started the game with a walk against Lance McCullers Jr. As Straw took his steps toward first base, Yuli Gurriel fumbled around in his pants pocket, pulled out a mask, and covered his face before the two men met at the bag. Gurriel wore a face covering every time a player reached first base.

“I made sure he did that with everybody,” Straw said. “Maybe he does that throughout the season — I’m not sure — but these guys are really actually trying to stay safe. As funny as it seems, none of us really want to get sick to not be able to play this year.”

Gurriel once lowered his mask to spit. And players at

times were less than 6 feet apart in the dugouts, reinforcing how hard some habits will be to break.

The Astros plan to play another intrasquad game Sunday.

“Forever, since they were little kids, they’ve been close in the dugout,” manager Dusty Baker said. “That’s something we’re going to have to be very aware of.”

The scrimmage’s silence was broken only by a mix of banter and profanities. In the second, Verlander uttered an audible expletive after an off-speed pitch slipped and he fell behind Gurriel 2-0.

The next pitch was borderline. Catcher Dustin Garneau — doubling as the umpire — deemed it a ball. The first-base dugout erupted in a lighthearted dispute by most of the team’s veterans. Josh Reddick’s and George Springer’s voices rose above the rest.

“I’m sure you’re gonna hear a lot more self-talk on TV,” McCullers said. “Sure you’re gonna get a lot more mutes as well.”

Both teams played their entire defensive infield. Outfielders remained on the bench on the advice of the team’s athletic trainers. Baker said “they didn’t want those guys to break real hard and fast to try to run down a ball yet and then end up pulling a muscle or something.”

Class A Tri City manager Wladimir Sutil stood in left field, bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte played center field, and bench coach Joe Espada was in right.

After Tucker’s first-inning single, Espada’s throw bounced into the infield, allowing Straw to score the scrimmage’s only run. Bracamonte ended the game by robbing Alex Bregman, whose head is newly shaved, of a double in the right-center gap.

Verlander threw three hitless innings against the Astros’ assumed everyday lineup, striking out five. McCullers finished four innings and said he “felt like I could have gone four more.”

McCullers said his fastball velocity was up to 95-96 mph. He walked three, hit a batter, and yielded two hits with his 63 pitches.

“I didn’t really notice anything different today,” Verlander said. “I try to drown out crowd noise anyway; it’s just more kind of white noise. I feel like I had the same mentality. But I think it'll be interesting when we face other teams. The chirping, the comments from the dugout — you’ll hear all that when you usually don’t, so I think that will be interesting.”