Dodgers: The Astros have not been forgiven or is 2017 forgotten.
HOUSTON » No hard feelings? Yeah — the Dodgers aren’t quite there yet and might never be.
In their minds, they returned to the scene of the crime on Tuesday, back at Minute Maid Park for the second time since the 2017 World Series — the first time with fans allowed back in the stadium (at full capacity, no less).
“I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get over it,” said catcher Austin Barnes — one of seven players on the Dodgers’ current active roster who played in the 2017 World Series. “Winning (the 2020 World Series) helps obviously. If we never won a World Series that would have been pretty hard to swallow. But ... not trying to go too deep into it but we could have won two World Series.”
Only five Astros remain from that championship team — infielders Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel and pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. The first four were in the lineup Tuesday night.
The manager (A.J. Hinch) has moved on after a oneyear suspension. The GM (Jeff Luhnow) remains out of baseball after his suspension in the wake of the signstealing scandal.
Even though time has passed, Barnes said he “can’t just forgive them for it.”
“I think it’s unfortunate that it happened, that it was during the World Series, that it affected a World Series like that,” Barnes said. “But it happened years ago. You move on. I don’t think about it all the time. But those games were high intensity. Those games were tough, man. I remember those games. We went to Game 7 in the World Series and we didn’t come out on the right side of it. It’s something that — it happened and there’s not much you can do about it . ... So you just move on.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts referred to “things that happened, the cheating” being brought to light by MLB’s investigation. But he hoped the focus would be on the current challenge of playing the Astros.
“It’s certainly not forgotten. Obviously,” he said. “It’s a different ballclub. There are still some guys on both teams who were there. I just don’t see the benefit of trying to intentionally bring it up. It’s already there. Everyone understands. When we walked into this ballpark today, it certainly brought up some things. But I think right now we’re just trying to focus on tonight.”
The Dodgers visited Houston last season and swept a two-game interleague series in an empty stadium. The series featured a benches-clearing incident — and legendary pouty face — set off when Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly threw at Correa. Kelly was suspended for five games for that and expected to be welcomed back appropriately by Astros fans this week.
“Probably similar to the one I got in Yankee Stadium,” Kelly said, referring to his time with the Boston Red Sox. “It’s great. They know who you are. They come and pay to see the Dodgers play.
“That’s what it is to be a fan. I wouldn’t want it to be nice. That’s boring.”
Despite not being with the Dodgers in 2017 — his Red Sox were eliminated by the Astros in the AL Division Series round — Kelly has become the face (a pouty one, at that) of fan anger toward the Astros.
“It’s just being real. People are pretty fake nowadays,” Kelly said.
Roberts understands fans might not move on easily.
“Sports fans, the world doesn’t really appreciate cheating ... when it’s kind of brought to light,” he said. “We didn’t have fans (in stadiums) last year. This is highly anticipated by baseball fans, which I really do believe is great for the game. But it’s gonna be exponentially crazy once they come to our place, I’m sure.”
The Astros play at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 3-4.
Betts back
Outfielder Mookie Betts was back in the lineup Tuesday after being scratched with a sore left shoulder on Sunday in San Francisco. Betts was also out of the lineup Saturday and the Dodgers were off Monday. Roberts said after the threeday break, Betts’ shoulder “is in a good place” but he acknowledged that Betts is far from full strength after back and shoulder issues in the season’s first two months.
“I would say all players at this point in time — they’re not 100 percent. I’d say Mookie is right around 80 to 85 percent,” Roberts said.