Astros sign-stealing scandal still fresh for the A’s
OAKLAND, Calif. — Anticipation for the series that opens Friday at the Oakland Coliseum began, well, really as early as the end of last season, but it only intensified as the Astros went from the A’s heated division rivals to baseball’s biggest villains.
Now, at long last, after baseball’s coronavirus shutdown delayed things, Oakland will host Houston, which is coming off one of the biggest cheating scandals in the history of sports, a trash can-banging scheme to steal signs that helped the Astros to the World Series title in 2017 and cost manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow their jobs.
A major component will be missing from this long-awaited matchup between the AL West’s top teams, though, as MLB tries to play its season during a pandemic. Fans across the country had itched to boo the Astros this season.Houston probably would have drawn extremely well on the road, particularly in Oakland, such was the desire to heckle.
“This was a year that probably they would’ve gotten a hard time from the fans — and I don’t know that our cutouts will have a whole lot to say about that,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You just want to go out and play well against them. You want to beat them because they’re a good team, and if we’re going to go where we want to go, that’s the team you have to go through in your division.”
One potential major storyline must wait for one of the later series between the clubs: Mike Fiers, the one publicly named whistle-blower in the scandal, started against Texas on Thursday and won’t pitch against his former club this weekend.
“It’s really not going to change anything if I start against Houston,” Fiers said. “I’m going to be the same person, go out there
and make pitches and do exactly what I do. I don’t think there’s extra motive to pitch against them or any team.”
Chris Bassitt will be the first A’s
starter to face the defending division champs.
He said this week that the cheating scandal hasn’t really faded.
“From a player standpoint, I think we haven’t forgot about it at all,” he said. “But facing them, you can’t really play that game.
“I don’t think we need more incentive to try to win the division. That’s obviously our goal; that’s obviously their goal. We’re in their way, and they’re in our way. I think the Astros and us are going to be neck and neck basically the whole year.”
The Astros are nestled in second place behind Oakland, but they aren’t quite the team the A’s are used to seeing. Gerrit Cole left as a free agent for the Yankees, and Justin Verlander is out with an arm injury. Much of the pitching staff is inexperienced, and the top of what is still an impressive lineup is cold.
“Houston’s hurt right now. They’ve got a lot of guys injured and guys not pitching for them or in their lineup,” Fiers said, “so we’ve just got to take care of business. We’ve got to keep playing our style of baseball and just do everything the right way.”