HOUSTON — There’s no crying in baseball -- unless you’re a Red Sox broadcaster or fan looking for excuses for getting torched by the red hot Astros in Games 4 and 5.
The ‘Stros combined clutch pitching with hot bats at Fenway and headed back to Houston with a 3-2 series lead in their pockets and home field advantage.
Now, some Boston fans are claiming Astros starting pitcher Framber Valdez cheated when he gave up only three hits and one run in eight solid innings.
Red Sox broadcasters first stirred the pot by pointing out that Valdez kept touching his temple each time he got a new ball. They implied he had something on his forehead to doctor the ball so he could get a good grip. Seriously? News flash: ballplayers sweat.
Is that all you got, Beantown?
Nope. Conspiracy theorists are also tweeting they heard whistles right before Yordan Alvarez launched a bomb over the Green Monster in the second inning. Listen to any game and you will hear whistles. Fans whistle. Duh.
Then there was the mysterious blinking light in center field that Red Sox manager Alex Cora pointed out to the umps. Does he really think the Astros rigged center field? At Fenway? Take a seat, Cora.
“It wasn’t in anybody’s eyes or point of vision or distraction. It was some reflective tape that somebody had put out there. It looked like a light shining off the lights, but I didn’t really see it. I didn’t have the angle to see it,” Astros Manager Dusty Baker said after the game.
We won’t even remind them that Cora was suspended in 2020 after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred tagged him as the ringleader of the Astros 2017 trash can scandal.
That was so four seasons ago, but fans -- and broadcasters -- in other cities will love to hate the Astros for years to come.
Let them keep whining and watch us keep winning -- and whistling while we work.
